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- President-elect Joe Biden is considering Roger Ferguson, former vice-chair of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, for National Economic Council director, sources close to the matter told CNBC.
- Biden is considering regulatory veteran Gary Gensler, who worked for both the Obama and Clinton administrations, for Deputy Treasury Secretary, they said.
- Kenneth Chenault, who spent nearly 40 years at American Express, is also being considered for a top economic policy position, they added.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
President-elect Joe Biden is considering Roger Ferguson, Gary Gensler, and Kenneth Chenault for some of the top economic policy roles in his administration, CNBC reported Wednesday, citing sources close to the matter.
Ferguson, the outgoing CEO of The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, who has previously held government roles, could be Biden’s National Economic Council director, the sources said.
Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman Gensler could be appointed Deputy Treasury Secretary, they said. On Monday, Biden picked former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen to head the Treasury Department.
Former American Express CEO Chenault, who has sat on boards including at Facebook, Airbnb, and Berkshire Hathaway, could also be in the running for another economic policy position, the sources said.
Biden is expected to announce some of the appointments to his economic team early next week.
Roger Ferguson
After being considered for Treasury Secretary, Ferguson is now in the running for National Economic Council director, the sources told CNBC. Ferguson is currently the CEO of the Fortune 100 fund manager TIAA, but earlier this month he announced his retirement in March after almost 13 years in the role.
Ferguson, who has three degrees from Harvard University, has held previous governmental roles.
After working in the legal industry, he was appointed to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors by the Clinton administration in 1997. He was appointed to the board's vice-chair two years later, and resigned from the role in 2006.
Ferguson sat on Barack Obama's Transition Economic Advisory Board when he first ran for president in 2008, and was considered for Federal Reserve Board chair in 2013.
Ferguson currently sits on the board of Alphabet, Google's parent company.
Gary Gensler
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Biden is also considering Gary Gensler for Deputy Treasury Secretary, the sources said.
Gensler is currently leading Biden's financial policy transition team, which involves overseeing Wall Street and the regulations that govern it, alongside reviewing the Federal Reserve.
In this role he will likely knuckle down on financial and consumer protection policies, four securities lawyers told Business Insider.
Gensler has also worked alongside previous presidents. During the Obama administration, Gensler chaired the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates the United States' derivatives markets.
He also served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Markets and then Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance under former president Bill Clinton.
Gensler was also the chief financial officer for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.
Gensler additionally spent 18 years working at Goldman Sachs, and is a professor of global economics and management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Kenneth Chenault
Former American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault is also under consideration for a top economic policy position, the sources said.
After working at the financial services company for 20 years, Chenault served as its CEO and chairman from 2001 to 2018, making him the third-ever Black CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
Chenault has sat on the boards of IBM, Procter & Gamble, Airbnb, Facebook, and Berkshire Hathaway. He is currently managing director of General Catalyst Partners.