Roger W. Ferguson Jr. is the Steven A. Tananbaum Distinguished Fellow for International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. Ferguson, a D.C. native, holds a BA, JD, and a Ph.D. in Economics all from the prestigious Harvard University. He began his career as a litigator with the New York City office of Davis Polk & Wardwell, and as an associate partner at McKinsey & Company. With his exceptional leadership skills, Ferguson would become Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System. He represented the Federal Reserve on several international policy forums and served on key Federal Reserve System committees, including Payment Systems Oversight, Reserve Bank Operations, and Supervision and Regulation. His knowledge and expertise afford him the opportunity to serve at the pleasure of President Barack Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness as well as his predecessor, the Economic Recovery Advisory Board, and he co-chaired the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on the Long-Run Macroeconomic Effects of the Aging U.S. Population. He would go on to serve as head of the financial services for Swiss Re, Chairman of Swiss Re America Holding Corporation, and a member of the company’s executive committee.

He is the former President and Chief Executive Officer of TIAA, the leading provider of retirement services in the academic, research, medical, and cultural fields. It is also a Fortune 100 financial services organization. Ferguson serves on the boards of the Conference Board, the Institute for Advanced Study, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Columbia University’s Teachers College, and several other non-profits. He is also a fellow of the American Philosophical Society and a member of the Economic Club of New York, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Group of Thirty, and the National Association for Business Economics. A champion of the preservation of history, Ferguson is also a former member of the Smithsonian Institution’s Board of Regents. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and co-chairs its Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education. A distinguished man of excellence, Ferguson suggests, “the one thing no one can ever take away from you is your knowledge.”