Dive Brief:

• Jeffrey R. Schmid will become the Kansas City Fed’s next president, effective Aug. 21, the reserve bank announced Wednesday.
• The move installs Schmid just ahead of the Kansas City Fed’s best-known annual event, the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, which begins Aug. 24.
• The Kansas City Fed’s top post had been empty since its previous president, Esther George, retired in January. The reserve bank had been searching for a replacement since May 2022.

Dive Insight:

Schmid, the CEO of Southern Methodist University’s Southwestern Graduate School of Banking Foundation, will complete George’s five-year term, which ends in February 2026, and will be considered for reappointment, the Kansas City Fed said.

George left upon reaching mandatory retirement at age 65. Schmid, meanwhile, is 64. But under Federal Reserve rules, presidents who are appointed after age 55, can serve 10 years in office or until age 75, whichever comes first.

“We are excited to welcome Jeff back to the Tenth District as the Kansas City Fed’s next leader,” María Griego-Raby, deputy chair of the reserve bank’s board, said in a statement. “Jeff’s perspective as a native Nebraskan, his broad experience in banking, and his deep roots in our region will be an incredible asset to the Federal Reserve, both as a leader of the organization and in his role as a monetary policymaker.”

Schmid will next be a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee in 2025.

Schmid began his career as a Kansas City-based field examiner for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., then served as president of Omaha-based American National Bank; CEO of Mutual of Omaha Bank; and CEO of Dallas-based Susser Bank.

“I am honored to be selected to serve the Tenth District in this role and for the opportunity to lead the Kansas City Fed’s talented workforce as it carries out its important public mission,” Schmid said in a statement. “It is a privilege to represent this region and to be able to build upon the long tradition of service that the Bank is well known for.”

The Fed has seen marked turnover at the top of its regional reserve banks in recent years. The presidents of the Boston and Dallas Fed resigned in late 2021, when financial disclosure forms revealed they traded stocks in 2020, while also setting monetary policy. 

The Boston Fed chose Susan Collins, a University of Michigan economist, to lead the central bank satellite last year. Dallas chose New York Fed veteran Lorie Logan. 

The latter announcement sparked an outcry from Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, who had been pushing for the central bank to name a Latino leader — particularly in a region that serves the Hispanic strongholds of Texas and New Mexico. 

President Joe Biden has since nominated a Latina, Adriana Kugler, to serve on the Fed’s board of governors. Her nomination awaits a hearing in the full Senate.

Turnover continued this year, when Chicago Fed President Charles Evans retired in January and St. Louis Fed President James Bullard stepped down in July. Austan Goolsbee, who led the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, took the Chicago role.