The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco has kicked off its search for a new president and CEO, with its internal search committee hiring a firm to help with the process.
The bank's current leader, John Williams, will head to the New York Fed next month, a pick that drew some critics over a lack of diversity among top Fed leaders.
Four members of the San Francisco Fed's board of directors, all of whom are not affiliated to banks, will make up the internal search committee. The committee has hired Diversified Search, a female-owned firm, to help identify candidates.
Real estate developer Alexander Mehran, who chairs the board and will lead the search committee, told S&P Global Market Intelligence in an April 4 interview that officials will "cast as broad a net as possible" but that diversity will only be one part of the criteria it considers.
Mehran said in the May 16 announcement the committee will ask stakeholders what they would like to see in the ideal candidate. He also said the committee does not have a firm timeline for wrapping up the search.
The four search committee members are: Mehran, who is chairman and CEO of Sunset Development Co.; Tamara Lundgren, president, CEO and director of Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc.; Barry Meyer, retired chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Entertainment and founder and chairman of North Ten Mile Associates; and Rosemary Turner, president of UPS Northern California.
