Fed Chair Jerome Powell ’75 will be Princeton’s Baccalaureate speaker

Jerome Powell, chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, has been selected as the Baccalaureate speaker for the Class of 2025. Powell earned his bachelor’s degree in politics from Princeton in 1975.

Baccalaureate, an end-of-year interfaith service that is one of Princeton’s oldest traditions, is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday, May 25.

The Baccalaureate speaker was selected by the Committee on Honorary Degrees and approved by the Board of Trustees. The goal of Baccalaureate is to emphasize the value and importance of service to graduating seniors. In the letter of invitation to Powell, Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber noted that his “steadfast leadership” of the nation’s financial system is “an outstanding example of the virtues of public service.”

Powell became a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in 2012 and has been chair of the board since February 2018. He is currently serving his second four-year term as chair. As head of the central bank, Powell oversees the Federal Reserve System’s role in shaping national monetary policy, supporting the stability of the financial system and helping guide its economic future, supervising and regulating banks and other financial institutions, and ensuring consumer protections.

Class of 2025 President Ben Wachspress said Powell is an “exemplary model” of steady leadership, particularly during challenging financial times across the country and world.

“The Class of 2025 is honored to have Mr. Powell as our Baccalaureate speaker, and we are grateful for his service to the United States,” Wachspress said. “His poise and sound decision-making in response to the 2020 financial crisis preserved the health of the American economy, drawing widespread bipartisan praise.”

From 1990 to 1993, Powell served as an assistant secretary and as under secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury under President George H.W. Bush.

In addition to his roles in federal government, Powell has been a lawyer and an investment banker. From 1997 to 2005, he was a partner at The Carlyle Group, a global investment firm. Prior to his appointment at the Federal Reserve, he was a visiting scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

He has served on the boards of corporate, charitable and educational institutions, including Princeton’s Bendheim Center for Finance and the Nature Conservancy in New York. He earned his law degree in 1979 from Georgetown University, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Georgetown Law Journal.