Volcker, Paul Adolph (1927– )

US economist, chair of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System 1979–87. He later became chair of Wolfensohn & Co, a New York investment banking firm, and in 2004–05 was assigned by the United Nations to investigate allegations of corruption in the Oil-for-Food programme in Iraq. He has served since 2006 as chairman of the board of trustees of the Group of Thirty, a financial advisory body, and is a member of the Trilateral Commission (a non-governmental group of distinguished figures fostering closer cooperation between Western Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific region). He is also professor emeritus of international economic policy at Princeton University.

Educated at Princeton University, Harvard University, and the London School of Economics, he pursued a career in finance at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Chase Manhattan Bank, and the US Treasury Department before his appointment to the Federal Reserve System.