Esther George

Esther L. George was president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City for more than 11 years prior to her mandatory retirement in January 2023. Prior to her tenure as president, George spent most of her more than four-decade career at the Fed involved in bank supervision, and, for eight years, was the top regulator over 200 banks and more than 1,000 bank and financial holding companies in the Tenth Federal Reserve District. In 2009, she served as the Federal Reserve Board’s acting director of Banking Supervision and Regulation.

George was the Tenth District’s representative to the Federal Open Market Committee, the body responsible for directing the nation’s monetary policy. She was host of the Kansas City Fed’s annual Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, one of the world’s most preeminent conferences focused on emerging global economic issues for central bankers, policymakers, academics and economists. In addition, she was also heavily involved with the Federal Reserve’s work to ensure the smooth and efficient functioning of the nation’s payment system, leading the effort to establish the FedNow Service, providing financial institutions with the ability to settle payments in real-time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.