Goldman Sachs Veteran Haemac Named President of Cleveland Fed... Joins FOMC from September

Beth Hammack, a former Goldman Sachs executive, has been appointed as the next president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

Beth Hammack [Image provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, USA]

According to the Cleveland Fed on the 29th (local time), Hammack, 52 years old this year, will begin her duties on August 21, succeeding Loretta Mester, who is retiring next month.

Hammack joined Goldman Sachs in 1993, was promoted to partner in 2010, and served as co-head of the Global Financing Group. She also chaired an advisory committee of Wall Street executives advising the U.S. Treasury on government bond issuance from 2018 to 2023.

The Cleveland Fed introduced Hammack as "a person with over 30 years of experience in finance, capital markets, and risk management." The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) evaluated that "she could strengthen expertise in financial markets." Currently, among other Fed regional bank presidents, Neil Kashkari, president of the Minneapolis Fed, is also a former Goldman Sachs executive.

The Cleveland Fed president will have voting rights at this year’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings. Mester, who currently leads the Cleveland Fed, will attend the June FOMC and retire at the end of the same month. Hammack will participate in monetary policy decisions starting with the September FOMC after her official inauguration. Meanwhile, at the July FOMC, Austin Goolsbee, president of the Chicago Fed, will vote in place of the Cleveland Fed, CNN reported.

Local media including CNN assessed that while Mester is considered hawkish (favoring monetary tightening) in the market, Hammack has rarely made public comments on monetary policy, so her stance remains unclear.