Janet Yellen took office as the 15th chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors last week, becoming the first woman in history to lead the nation’s central banking system and monetary policy. In so doing, the professor emeritus at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley has made her institution very proud. Her appointment represents a long tradition of faculty from the business school serving the federal government at the highest levels, the school notes.
Yellen has said that she intends in her new role to prevent another financial crisis, hold down short-term interest rates until unemployment recovers and lead the normalization of monetary policy. She also plans to continue promoting transparency of Fed decisions to help the American people understand how those decisions affect them.
Yellen the Eugene E. and Catherine M. Trefethen Professor Emeritus of Business Administration, taught macroeconomics and international business to undergraduate and MBA students at the Haas School for 24 of her 26 years on the Berkeley campus, the school reports. She became the second woman at Haas to earn tenure in 1982 as well as the title of full professor in 1985.
Yellen succeeds Fed Chair Ben Bernanke and will serve a four-year term.
