Paul A. Volcker currently is serving as director of, or consultant to, a number
of corporations and non-profit organizations.
Mr. Volcker was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System from August 1979 to August 1987, and is credited with the leading role
in ending a period of high and rising inflation and restoring a base for
sustained growth. Initially appointed to that position by President Carter for
a four-year term, he was reappointed in 1983 by President Reagan. Upon
completion of his second term as Chairman, Mr. Volcker returned to private
life, joining as Chairman of the firm of James D. Wolfensohn Inc., a company
concentrating on the provision of investment banking services to a limited
number of large domestic and international organizations. He retired as
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Wolfensohn & Co., Inc. upon the merger
of that firm in 1996 with the Bankers Trust Company.
In the course of his career, Mr. Volcker worked in the Federal Government for
almost 30 years, serving in office under five presidents -- John F. Kennedy,
Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.
Immediately before becoming Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal
Reserve System in 1979, Mr. Volcker spent more than four years as President of
the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the principal operating arm of the System.
Earlier, Mr. Volcker had two tours of duty as an official of the U.S. Treasury,
serving as Under Secretary for Monetary Affairs from 1969 to 1974. In that
position he was responsible for developing and implementing Treasury debt
management and Federal credit policies. On behalf of the United States, he
conducted international monetary negotiations during the transition from the
Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate system to the more flexible system of
floating rates that has prevailed since the early 1970's. In the area of
domestic finance, among other initiatives, Mr. Volcker initiated the auctioning
of Treasury bonds, an approach that has now become customary not only in the
United States but in many other countries.
Upon leaving Washington in 1987, he became Frederick H. Schultz Professor of
International Economic Policy at Princeton University (now Emeritus). Mr.
Volcker also served as volunteer chairman of a newly formed, privately
sponsored Commission on the Public Service. The Commission studied problems
arising in attracting, motivating, and retaining the quality of people
necessary for Government to function effectively. Both of those activities
reflected Mr. Volcker's continuing interest in improving the professionalism
and effectiveness of public service. Recently, Mr. Volcker has assumed
chairmanship of the newly established Board of Trustees of the International
Accounting Standards Committee, overseeing a renewed effort to develop
consistent, high-quality accounting standards acceptable in all countries.
Mr. Volcker was born in 1927 in Cape May, New Jersey, grew up in that state and
spent much of his early adult life there. He earned his B.A. at Princeton
University in 1949 and an M.A. in political economy and government at the
Harvard University Graduate School of Public Administration in 1951. He
attended the London School of Economics as a post-graduate student in 1951-52.
Among his honorary degrees are those from his three Alma Maters: Princeton,
Harvard, and London University. In 1998-1999, Mr. Volcker was honored by his
appointment as the first Henry Kaufman Visiting Professor at the Stern School
of Business at New York University.
Mr. Volcker is Chairman of International House, and Co-chairman of the
Financial Services Volunteer Corps. He is also associated as a Trustee or
member of the Board of Directors with the American Assembly, the American
Council on Germany, the Japan Society , the Group of Thirty, and the Institute
for International Economics. Mr. Volcker, a former chairman of the Trilateral
Commission, also serves on a number of other public and private advisory boards.
He lives in New York City and has a son and daughter and four brilliant
grandchildren.
