Robert Steven Kaplan, a Harvard professor and former Goldman Sachs banker, has been named the new president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
Kaplan will represent the regional bank at the Fed’s monetary policy committee and will have responsibility for regulating banks in the Dallas district, which comprises Texas, northern Louisiana and southern New Mexico.
His appointment, announced Monday, comes after a lengthy search. His predecessor, Richard Fisher, stepped down in March. Fisher was known for his vocal opposition to the Fed’s low-interest rate policies and his use of colorful metaphors in talking about monetary policy.
Kaplan, 58, will take over Sept. 8.
Kaplan is currently a professor at Harvard Business School and is involved in nonprofit work.
Before joining Harvard in 2006, he was a vice chairman at Goldman Sachs, in charge of the megabank’s investment banking and investment management divisions.
Kaplan’s appointment, which was subject to approval by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, means that there will be two Goldman Sachs alums represented among top members of the Federal Reserve System.
William Dudley, the president of the New York Fed, was previously the Wall Street bank’s chief economist.
As a regional bank president, Kaplan is not scheduled to rotate into a voting slot on the Fed’s monetary policy committee until 2017.
