President of Federal Reserve Bank of New York to Address Holy Cross Graduates

WORCESTER, Mass. – William J. McDonough, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, will deliver the principal address and receive an honorary degree at the 155th commencement exercises at the College of the Holy Cross on Friday, May 25.

Holy Cross will graduate 676 men and women during the ceremony, beginning at 10:30 a.m. at Fitton Field. In case of rain, the commencement exercises will be held in the Hart Recreation Center.

McDonough has served as chief executive of the Second District Federal Reserve Bank at New York since 1993. In that capacity, he is vice chairman and permanent member of the Federal Open Market Committee.

A 1956 graduate of Holy Cross (with a bachelor’s degree in economics), McDonough went on to earn a master’s degree in economics from Georgetown University. He served in the U.S. Navy for four years following graduation from Holy Cross, and worked at the U.S. State Department from 1961 to 1967.

McDonough enjoyed a 22-year career with First Chicago Corporation and its bank, First National Bank of Chicago. When he retired in 1989, he was vice chairman of the board and a director of the bank holding company. After leaving First Chicago, McDonough served in a variety of executive roles, including adviser to the World Bank and International Finance Corporation on the selection of outside auditors, special adviser to the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, and chairman of the Illinois Commission on the Future of Public Service.

In 1992, McDonough joined the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Before his present appointment, he was executive vice president and head of the financial markets group of the bank, which includes domestic open market and foreign exchange operations and U.S. government securities market surveillance.