Boston Fed Names University of Michigan Provost as Bank President, CEO

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has announced its next leader is Susan M. Collins, according to a press release Wednesday (Feb. 9).

Collins will serve as president, CEO and a participant in monetary policymaking nationwide on the Federal Open Market Committee.

Collins is provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Michigan.

In that role, she works as the university’s chief academic and budget officer, and oversees all academic programming and budget planning. She is also the Edward M. Gramlich Collegiate Professor of Public Policy and a professor of economics.

Collins is an international macroeconomist who the Fed reports has a “lifelong interest in policy” and the way it affects living standards. She’s been published widely and has had a variety of academic jobs.

“After an intensive search, we are thrilled to appoint this exceptionally well-qualified person to be the bank’s president and a key leader in the Federal Reserve System,” said Christina Paxson, president of Brown University and chair of the bank’s board of directors, who led the presidential search committee.

Paxson cited Collins’ “technical expertise and insight to contribute to policymaking and the leadership ability to head the organization.”

“It is an honor and an inspiration to serve as the Boston Fed’s next president,” Collins said. “Throughout my career, I have been driven by a commitment to leveraging research, education and public service to improve lives. I look forward to helping the bank and system pursue the Fed’s dual mandate from Congress — achieving price stability and maximum employment.”

The Boston Fed has worked with MIT to make a digital dollar, which was able to produce a “functioning and fault-tolerant” central bank digital currency (CBDC), which could handle 1.7 million transactions in a second. Ninety-nine percent were completed within a second.

See also: Boston Fed, MIT Digital Dollar Test Casts Doubt on Blockchain as Processing Platform

The project also wasn’t built on blockchain.

The project was called Project Hamilton and was launched initially 18 months ago to provide technical design research and testing.