Rockefeller Foundation President Rajiv Shah appointed to New York Fed Board of Directors

New York: The Rockefeller Foundation president and former head of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Dr Rajiv Shah has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Shah has been appointed by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System as a ‘Class C’ director on the New York Fed Board of Directors for a three-year term ending December 31, 2026. Class C directors on the New York Fed’s Board of Directors represent the interests of the public, a statement said here Friday.

Shah has led the prominent philanthropic organisation The Rockefeller Foundation since 2017.

Prior to joining the foundation, Shah was 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, he served as USAID head and 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, 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, Shah was a director at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he created the International Financing Facility for Immunization.

A graduate of the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Wharton School of Business, Shah 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 Bank of New York works within the Federal Reserve System and with other public and private sector institutions to foster the safety, soundness and vitality of US economic and financial systems. It is one of 12 regional Reserve Banks which, together with the Board of Governors in Washington, DC, make up the Federal Reserve System.

The Fed, as the system is commonly called, is an independent governmental entity created by Congress in 1913 to serve as the central bank of the United States.

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.