NEW YORK (TIP): Dr. Rajiv Shah, the Indian American president of the Rockefeller Foundation, has been named to the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for a three-year term ending December 31, 2026. Shah, who has led The Rockefeller Foundation, a philanthropy whose mission is to promote the well-being of people around the world, since 2017, has been appointed a Class C director to represent the interests of the public, according to a media release.
Prior to joining the foundation, Dr Shah was the founder and managing partner of Latitude Capital, a private equity firm focused on infrastructure and energy projects in Africa and Asia.
From 2009 to 2015, Dr Shah served as head of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In that role, he served on the National Security Council, led the US responses to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the 2014 West African Ebola pandemic, and secured bipartisan support for the passage of the Global Food Security Act and the Electrify Africa Act.
Before joining USAID, Dr. Shah served as chief scientist and undersecretary for research, education, and economics at the United States Department of Agriculture, where he created the National Institute for Food and Agriculture. Earlier in his career, Dr Shah was a director at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he created the International Financing Facility for Immunization.
Dr Shah is a graduate of the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and the Wharton School of Business. He served as a distinguished fellow in residence at Georgetown University and has received the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award and the US Global Leadership Award.
The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 requires each of the Reserve Banks to operate under the supervision of a board of directors. Each Reserve Bank has nine directors who represent the interests of their Reserve District and whose experience provides the Reserve Banks with a wider range of expertise that helps them fulfill their policy and operational responsibilities.
The nine directors of each Reserve Bank are divided evenly by classification: Class A Directors represent the member banks in the district; Class B Directors and Class C Directors represent the interests of the public.
The directors of the Reserve Banks act as an important link between the Federal Reserve and the private sector, ensuring that the Fed’s decisions on monetary policy are informed by actual economic conditions, the release stated.