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Dr. Loretta J. Mester was president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland from June 1, 2014 through June 30, 2024. In that role, she participated in the formulation of U.S. monetary policy and oversaw more than 1,000 employees based at the Bank’s Cleveland office and Branch offices in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.

Mester began her career at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia in 1985 as an economist and was executive vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia prior to her appointment as president and CEO of the Cleveland Fed on June 1, 2014.

Mester is an adjunct full professor of finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Senior Fellow with the Wharton Initiative on Financial Policy and Regulation. She is also a Senior Policy Scholar at the Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies at Princeton University.

Mester is a member of the board of directors of Renaissance Re and of the Haverford Trust Company, a member of the advisory council of the Visa Economic Empowerment Institute, and a contributor to CNBC, the business and financial news network.

In addition, she is a trustee of the Cleveland Clinic, a trustee of the Musical Arts Association (Cleveland Orchestra), a director of the Council for Economic Education, a member of the Finance Panel of Experts at the University of Chicago Booth School Clark Center for Global Markets, a founding director of the Financial Intermediation Research Society, a member of the CNBC Global Financial Wellness Advisory Board, a member of the Global Interdependence Center’s College of Central Bankers, a fellow of the National Association of Business Economics, a member of the senior council of the Central Bank Research Association (CEBRA), a member of the advisory board of the Financial Intermediation Network of European Studies (FINEST), and an editor of the Journal of Financial Services Research.

Mester was born in Baltimore. She graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor of arts degree in mathematics and economics from Barnard College of Columbia University. She earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from Princeton University, where she was a National Science Foundation Fellow.