Jerome Powell

Jerome Hayden "Jay" Powell (born February 4, 1953) is an American central banker who has been the 16th chair of the Federal Reserve since 2018. He was previously both a lawyer and investment banker in the private sector before entering public service.

A native of Washington, D.C., Powell graduated from Princeton University and the Georgetown University Law Center. After working as an attorney for five years, he began a career in investment banking and private equity during the mid-1980s, eventually becoming a partner at the Carlyle Group in 1997. He left Carlyle in 2005 to launch Severn Capital Partners, a boutique private equity firm. He was a visiting scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center from 2010 to 2012.