Economist Alberto Musalem was named the next president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis on Thursday.
Musalem, 55, will start on April 2. He succeeds James Bullard, who joined Purdue University last August. The St. Louis Fed representative is an alternate member of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee and will vote in 2025. St. Louis Fed First Vice President Kathy O’Neill has been holding the position in the interim.
“Alberto will be an outstanding president and CEO of the St. Louis Fed,” said St. Louis Fed director Carolyn Chism Hardy, president and CEO of Chism Hardy Investments and deputy chair of the bank’s search committee.
Hardy cited Musalem’s experience as an economist and in financial markets as well as his extensive background with the Fed.
In his most recent work, he served as co-chief investment officer and was co-founder of Evince Asset Management. Before that, he was executive vice president and senior advisor to the New York Fed.
In addition, he has financial market experience at Tudor Investment Corp., working with the firm’s founder, Wall Street titan Paul Tudor Jones.
“Alberto is a mission-focused leader, and I am confident he will work tirelessly to promote a healthy economy for all in representing the diverse views of the constituents across the Fed’s Eighth District,” Hardy said.
Musalem comes to the St. Louis Fed at a time when the central bank is at what appears to be an important policy pivot, away from inflation-fighting interest rate hikes and toward a normalization of policy and likely rate cuts ahead. However, the trajectory of how that will happen is uncertain as Fed officials have vowed to be data dependent and are holding open the possibility that rates may need to go up more if the inflation data moves the other way.
“I am deeply honored to serve as the next president of the St. Louis Fed and grateful for the opportunity to promote a strong, resilient and inclusive economy,” Musalem said.
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