An aerospace engineer by training, Neel Tushar Kashkari is the current president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, one of 12 regional reserve banks in the U.S. In Kashkari's role with the Federal Reserve, which he has held since 2016, he helps craft national monetary policy. As a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, he is an influential voice on fed fund rates, which impact interest rates across the country.
In addition to his various responsibilities as a monetary policymaker, Kashkari also oversees all operations of the bank, including supervision, regulation, Treasury services, and payments services. Under his leadership, his bank established the Opportunity & Inclusive Growth Initiative. This aims to improve the economic well-being of all Americans via world-class research. He also helped steer the bank's action plan on the policy “Ending Too Big to Fail,” which calls for tighter bank regulations to avoid future bailouts of large financial institutions.
Prior to joining the Federal Reserve, Kashkari enjoyed a career that spanned the private and public sectors.
Most recently, he was managing director and member of the executive office at PIMCO, one of the largest investment firms in the world, with more than $2 trillion in assets under management. Before PIMCO, Kashkari worked in the U.S. Department of the Treasury, serving in several senior positions. In 2008 he was confirmed as the assistant secretary of the Treasury and later oversaw the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) for both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. During this time, he received the Alexander Hamilton Award, the Treasury Department’s highest honor for distinguished service.
Kashkari's time preceding the Treasury Department includes working at Goldman Sachs in San Francisco. Leaning on his strong technical background, at Goldman Sachs he helped technology companies raise capital and pursue strategic transactions. He began his career as an aerospace engineer at TRW (now Northrop Grumman) where he developed technology used for NASA space missions.
He holds a bachelor’s and a master’s in mechanical engineering, both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also received an MBA from the prestigious Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. A strong advocate for transparency at the Fed, Kashkari frequently publishes his views in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Financial Times, among other major outlets.