The board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia appointed Patrick Harker, 56, as the 11th president and CEO of the Philadelphia Fed.
Harker is currently president of the University of Delaware and a member of the Philadelphia Fed's board of directors. He will take on the new position effective July 1, 2015.
As president, Harker will participate on the Federal Open Market Committee in the formulation of U.S. monetary policy and will oversee the 900 employees at the Philadelphia Fed.
Harker has served as a nonbanking Class B director of the Philadelphia Fed for the past three years and will succeed Charles Plosser, who retired effective March 1, 2015.
"We were fortunate to have an exceptional and wonderfully diverse slate of candidates and are delighted that Pat Harker emerged as the best person to serve as the next president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia," said James Nevels, chairman of the Philadelphia Fed's board of directors.
"His deep roots in the region, his distinguished career in academia, his drive for innovation, and his passion to make our region an economic engine for the future truly impressed our board," said Nevels.
Along with serving as president of the University of Delaware, Harker is also a professor of business administration in the university's Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics and a professor of civil and environmental engineering in the university's College of Engineering.
Harker has a Ph.D. in civil and urban engineering, a master's degree in economics, and an M.S.E. and B.S.E. in civil engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
