May Interview: THOMAS I. BARKIN, president and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
A businessman’s perspective
Former McKinsey executive believes Federal Reserve has a ‘noble mission’
by Robert Powell I
Tom Barkin served on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta from 2009 to 2014.
n Tom Barkin’s first weeks as president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Rich- mond, he became a voting member of the
Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the powerful group that sets benchmark inter- est rates for the nation. Barkin, formerly an Atlanta-based senior
partner with the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., approached the January meeting as a challenge. “You have to bring your ‘A’ game,” he says.
“You have in the room 10 or 12 of the premier Ph.D. economists of the world, many of whom have studied and written and spoken on this topic for decades. You have experienced bank supervisors and experienced bankers who know their industry better than anybody. If you have pride and a competitive spirit, which I have, you want to contribute in a meaningful way.”
At his second FOMC meeting in March,
Barkin joined the other voting members in unanimously raising the Fed’s benchmark interest rate target a quarter of a percentage point. The meeting was the first one led by Jerome Powell, who had succeeded Janet Yel- len as Federal Reserve chairman in February. “We go around the room and we talk
about economics conditions and policy,” Bar- kin says. “We have the back-and-forth debate that you’d expect we would, and at the end we vote — alphabetically. I’m one of the first ones called. When you give your first vote and even the second vote — it sounds a little corny — but I actually felt something. Here I am decid- ing monetary policy for the most important economy in the world.”
20 MAY 2018 Unlike many Fed officials, Barkin, 56, is
not an economist or a banker, but he has exten- sive business and financial experience. During his 30-year career with McKinsey, he served as the company’s global chief financial officer, chief risk officer and a member of its board and operating committee. The Tampa native studied economics as
an undergraduate at Harvard, where he earned bachelor’s, MBA and law degrees. In addition, Barkin was a member of the
board of directors at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta from 2009 to 2014, a crucial period during the nation’s recovery from the Great Recession. He served as the board’s chairman in 2013-14. “While I was there, I did fall in love with
the institution,” Barkin says. “Talented people, noble mission and, you know, from ‘09 to ‘14, I felt that the folks in leadership were saving our economy.” Dennis P. Lockhart was president of the
Atlanta Fed when Barkin was on the board. He describes Barkin as “very engaged and knowledgeable about monetary affairs — even- handed, calm and very thoughtful. He was a joy to work with.” Lockhart encouraged Barkin to consider
the Richmond Fed job when he was contacted by an executive recruiter. “This is a golden opportunity,” Lockhart says. At the Richmond Fed, Barkin succeeded
Jeffrey Lacker, who had been president for nearly 13 years. Expected to retire last October, Lacker abruptly resigned in April 2017 after admitting his involvement in the disclosure of internal Fed information to an analyst in 2012.
Photo by Caroline Martin
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