Sustaining a decades-old practice of recruiting from outside. the regulatory system, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago has named Michael H. Moskow as its new president.
Mr. Moskow, currently a Northwestern University professor, is a well-credentialed business executive who also has held a variety of high-profile government posts, including. under secretary of Labor and deputy U.S. trade representative.
He will succeed Silas Keehn as the Chicago Fed's president on Sept. 1. Mr. Keehn is retiring after 13 years at the helm.
Some observers accuse the Federal Reserve System of giving preferential treatment to insiders.
But that portrayal is inaccurate with regard to the president's post at the Chicago Fed, which has been occupied by outsiders for at least the past 24 years.
Neither Mr. Moskow, nor Mr. Keehn, nor Mr. Keehn's predecessor, Robert P. Mayo, had worked inside the Federal Reserve System prior to their appointments.
According to sources familiar with recruitment at the Chicago Fed, the institution's directors have gravitated toward candidates with senior management experience.
That was the case with Mr. Keehn, a former vice chairman of Mellon Bank Corp. and former chairman of Pullman Inc.
And that is the case with Mr. Moskow, .who headed a staff of 15,000 at the Labor Department and held executive posts at federal government posts spanning eight years. He later spent 14 years as a Chicago businessman.
Appointed by former President Bush as a U.S. Trade Representative in 1991, Mr. Moskow returned to teaching at Northwestern University in 1993. In a brief telephone interview, Mr. Moskow expressed delight at his appointment but declined to voice preferences or priorities with regard to his new post. Next year, he will sit on the powerful Federal Open Market Committee, the highest monetary policy group within the Federal Reserve System.
