WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve on Monday named Trevor Reeve as director of the Division of Monetary Affairs, promoting a veteran staffer and international economics expert to help guide the development and implementation of monetary policy.
Reeve, previously the division’s deputy director, replaces Thomas Laubach, who died earlier this month.
Reeve, who holds a doctorate in economics from Harvard University, joined the Fed staff in 1998 and spent 16 years in the central bank’s Division of International Finance, including a stint advising the U.S. Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund.
He served as an adviser to both former Fed Chair Janet Yellen and current Chair Jerome Powell, and as deputy of the monetary affairs group beginning in 2018, according to the board website.
In announcing the appointment, Powell said Reeve’s advice had been “indispensable” to him, and cited his “wealth of experience in policy analysis and in facilitating the monetary policymaking process.”
The staff of the Fed’s Washington-based Board of Governors is organized into 12 divisions covering areas from research and statistics to financial stability and legal matters.
Monetary affairs is at the heart of the policymaking process, with 170 staff who help guide the Fed on fundamental decisions like interest rates, bondbuying, and communications. The group was central to a Fed strategic review that ended with a heightened central bank commitment to stronger job growth.
(Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Andrea Ricci)