President Christina Paxson P’19 was elected to the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the Boston Fed announced Jan. 12. She will serve through the end of 2017 on the nine-person board representing member banks and the public.
Paxson’s responsibilities will include attending monthly meetings and conference calls, during which the board will review administrative business, oversee local implementation of federal policy and advise the president of the bank on its organizational structure, Paxson said.
Paxson’s experience as both a researcher and administrator makes her a good fit for the role, said Darin Contini, assistant secretary of the Board of Directors. “Most significantly, she’s written on so many economic topics,” he added.
In her role on the board, Paxson represents the business sector and contributes to the group’s geographic and gender diversity, he said.
Paxson will serve as a Class B director at the Boston Fed. Both Class B and C directors represent the public, while Class A directors represent the member banks, Contini said.
Paxson noted that the distinction between the classes brings diversity to the decision-making process during board meetings.
“After receiving a formal nomination from a member bank, Class B directors are elected by a subset of the 63 First District member banks,” wrote Nick Brancaleone, senior communications consultant at the Boston Fed, in an email to The Herald.
Class B and C directors have “less substantive knowledge because we’re not bankers,” Paxson said, but they represent various industries, including higher education, agriculture and health.
“The board, by design, has members that represent the public who are drawn from a wide range of industries,” Paxson said. “Higher education in New England is a major sector of the economy.”
“I do not represent an entity that is regulated by the Federal Reserve. My responsibility is to make sure, to the extent that I can, that the Boston Fed is doing what (it) should,” Paxson said.
Several board directors have gone on to be chairmen or presidents of their respective regional banks, but most return to their primary industries after serving on the board.
Public service is paramount for those who serve on the board, Contini said. He added that after directors leave the board, they tend to remain “fixtures in New England” and continue to give back to the region.
Paxson said she took the role specifically because she “really like(s) being involved with public service.” She also brings relevant experience to the job, having just finished serving on a small committee overseeing the research division of the World Bank, she said.
Paxson said she kept the University’s best interests in mind when accepting this role. “The more I can learn about how organizations work, the more effective I can be as the president of Brown.”
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that President Christina Paxson's P'19 term is three years long. In fact, she will serve on the board until the end of 2017. The Herald regrets the error.
