John Williams

John C. Williams took office as President and Chief Executive Officer of the FederalReserve Bank of San Francisco on March 1, 2011. In this role, he serves on theFederal Open Market Committee, bringing the Fed’s Twelfth District’sperspective to monetary policy discussions in Washington.Dr. Williams was previously the executive vice president and director of researchfor the San Francisco bank, which he joined in 2002. He began his career in1994 as an economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System,following the completion of his Ph.D. in Economics at Stanford University.Dr. Williams’ research focuses on topics including: monetary policy underuncertainty; innovation; productivity, and business cycles. He has collaboratedwith economists from throughout the country and across the globe to examineeconomic and policy issues from different perspectives, and has publishednumerous articles in leading research journals.Dr. Williams currently serves as the managing editor of the InternationalJournal of Central Banking. Previously, he served as associate editor of the American Economic Review. Additionally, he served as senior economistat the White House Council of Economic Advisers and as a lecturer at StanfordUniversity’s Graduate School of Business.Prior to completing his doctorate at Stanford, he earned a Master’s of Science withdistinction in economics from the London School of Economics in 1989, and anA.B. with high distinction from the University of California at Berkeley in1984.Dr. Williams, 52, is a native of Sacramento, California.  He is married withtwo teenage sons and resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.