Tom Barkin
By Joe Garvey
Old Dominion University's Strome College of Business will host an informal virtual discussion with Tom Barkin, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, at 12:15 p.m. Sept. 21.
The event is free and open to students, faculty and staff. RSVP bblakego@odu.edu by Sept. 20 to receive a Zoom invite.
"This is a unique opportunity for ODU students, staff and faculty to participate in an informal question-and-answer discussion with one of the 12 presidents of the Federal Reserve System," said Robert McNab, economics professor and director of the Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy. "We are pleased to host Mr. Barkin at ODU and to engage in a wide-ranging discussion of topics centering on the regional, state and national economies."
Barkin's ODU appearance is part of the Richmond Fed's "Around Our District" tour. He will discuss current economic conditions in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and what the future might hold. Other recent topics he has discussed include the Richmond Fed's efforts to address racial inequality and how the loss of service industry jobs is affecting younger workers.
"More research, better communication on how to give us confidence that what we're doing is safe would be a real stimulant to our economy and a real diminishment of uncertainty," he said in a June interview with POLITICO.
Barkin joined the Richmond Fed, which serves the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and most of West Virginia, in January 2018. He is responsible for the bank's monetary policy, bank supervision and regulation, and payment services as well as oversight of the Federal Reserve System's information technology organization. Barkin served as a voting member in 2018 on the Federal Reserve's chief monetary policy body, the Federal Open Market Committee.
Before joining the Richmond Fed, Barkin was a senior partner and chief financial officer at McKinsey & Company, a worldwide management consulting firm. Barkin oversaw McKinsey's offices in the southern United States and provided strategic counsel to a diverse portfolio of clients. Barkin also served on the board of directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta from 2009 to 2014 and was the board's chairman from 2013 to 2014.
