Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker, described by President Barack Obama as “one of the world’s foremost economic policy experts,” will be the featured speaker at Union’s 215th Commencement on Sunday, June 14 and will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree from the College.
Volcker, 81, recently was picked by Obama to lead a new economic recovery advisory panel to help the administration deal with the ongoing financial crisis.
Volcker was appointed chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and reappointed in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan, serving until 1987. He is widely credited with reining in high inflation in the 1980s with a series of courageous, if sometimes unpopular tactics, including raising interest rates.
Since leaving the Fed, Volcker has served as chairman of Wolfensohn and Co., a New York City corporate advisory and investment firm; head of a committee reviewing dormant Swiss bank accounts of Nazi victims; chairman of the board of the International Accounting Standards Committee; and chair of the Independent Inquiry into the United Nations Oil for Food Program. In 2007, he was asked by the president of the World Bank to lead a review panel on operations of the Department of Institutional Integrity.
Educated at Princeton, Harvard and the London School of Economics, Volcker is professor emeritus of International Economic Policy at Princeton.
“We are extremely fortunate and honored to have someone of Paul Volcker’s stature as our Commencement speaker,” said President Stephen C. Ainlay. “His remarkable achievements and work as a tireless public servant will serve as an inspiration to our new graduates."