In a statement, the Minneapolis Fed said Kashkari will take the role on January 1 following the retirement of current president Narayana Kocherlakota. Kashkari left Treasury in 2009 and was a managing director at PIMCO until early 2013, when he left to focus on his political aspirations. After his time in Washington, he was an executive at the global investment firm PIMCO and the 2014 Republican nominee for governor of California.
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Mr. Kashkari’s views on central bank…
In Minnesota, Kashkari will succeed one of the Fed’s leading doves, the group of Fed officials who favor keeping interest rates low as a way to fight unemployment.
Kashkari, 42, worked at the Treasury Department from 2006 to 2009. He launched a campaign for governor of California, running on a platform of being the guy who was briefly in charge of the most widely and broadly hated government response to the financial crisis.
Kashkari will be an alternate member of the committee next year. Despite spending a reported $3 million of his own money in the race, he lost by 20 points to Democrat Jerry Brown. His role in the Troubled Asset Relief Program did, however, put him squarely at the center of ensuring the stability of the financial sector, which is one of the goals of the Federal Reserve.
Previously a Goldman Sachs banker, Kashkari joined Treasury under then-Secretary Hank Paulson.
Kashkari holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of IL at Urbana-Champaign.
The regional Federal Reserve banks also help shape federal monetary policy through research.
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“We believe that Neel has the right combination of skills: policymaking, management and leadership, banking and financial markets, and communications”, MayKao Hang, the soon-to-be chairwoman of the Minneapolis Fed board of directors, said in the announcement. “We were fortunate to have outstanding candidates during our national search”.
