Who is Jerome Powell? Discover His Net Worth, Career, and Education

Jerome Powell Biography

Early Life of Jerome Powell

Jerome H. Powell was born in Washington DC on February 4, 1953. His father, Jerome Powell, was an attorney in private practice and his mother, Patricia Hayden, was Mathematician. Notably, Powell’s maternal grandfather worked as a Dean of the Columbus School of Law and a lecturer at Georgetown Law School.

Following his father and grandfather’s footsteps, getting a degree in law and becoming a lawyer came natural to Powell. However, Powell took it a step further and became a Chair of the US Federal Reserve.

After graduating from Georgetown Preparatory School, Powell received a BA degree from Princeton University in 1975. He continued to pave his way into becoming a lawyer and earned a Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1979.

Jerome Powell’s Career Trajectory

Early Career

In the initial years of his career, Powell worked as an investment banker and as a lawyer at Dillon, Read & Co. in New York City. After continuing there for around 6 years, Powell started working as an assistant secretary and as undersecretary of the US Department of Treasury. This was in the times when George H.W Bush was the President of the United States.

Powell then moved to one of the leading private equity and asset management firms, The Carlyle Group, as a partner. He even worked as a visiting scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington from 2010 to 2012. With extensive experience in the economic background, Jerome Powell took office as Federal Reserve Board of Governors in 2012 for the first time.

Chairman of the Federal reserve

After serving several as Board of governors, Powell was nominated by President Donald Trump in 2017 to serve as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. In his 4-year term, Powell became widely known for his interest rate hikes in response to the global recession following the Pandemic.

Jerome Powell received bipartisan praise for handling the unforeseen financial crisis well. Addressing this situation, Trump told Fox News that he was very happy with Powell’s performance.

When his term came to an end in 2021, Powell was renominated for Chairman of the Federal Reserve under the Biden administration as well. He is currently playing an active role in optimizing the federal interest rates during regular FOMC meetings.

After raising interest rates several times after the Pandemic to fight inflation, the Fed finally stopped interest rate hikes. For the fourth time in a row, the Fed kept the fund rates unchanged, saying that the inflation is not as worse as before, as of February 2024.

Jerome Powell Net Worth

The net worth of Jerome Powell is around $50 million, according to Palms West. This makes him one of the richest members in the whole Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

The current salary of the Chairman of the Federal Reserve is around $203,500, which is also what Jerome H. Powell makes at present. And, most of his wealth comes from his salary and pension funds from his previous roles as an investment banker and attorney.

Jerome Powell holds a $5.6 million worth of house in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and a $1.7 million worth vacation home in Chester, Vermont. He and his wife also hold a diversified portfolio, which also make up a portion of his total net worth.

Personal Life of Jerome Powell

Coming to the personal life of Jerome Powell, he was married to Elissa Leonard in 1985. The couple has 3 children and lives in Chevy Chase Village, Maryland. His wife Elissa holds the position of Chair of the board of managers of the Chevy Chase village and Powell, the board of governors of a country club.

Apart from his professional career as investment banker, governor, chairman, attorney, Powell also served on the boards of several charitable and educational organizations. He founded Center City Consortium, and around 16 parochial schools in several areas of Washington DC.