Former Fed chairman Ben Bernanke is joining the Citadel hedge fund
Former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is joining Citadel LLC, the hedge fund run by Chicago billionaire Kenneth Griffin.
Bernanke, as a senior adviser, will consult with Citadel on developments in monetary policy, financial markets and the global economy, the firm said Thursday in a joint statement with Bernanke.
“Citadel is a dynamic firm with tremendously talented people and a rigorous approach to research and investing,” Bernanke said. “I look forward to adding my perspective on a range of issues affecting our global economy.”
Bernanke, 61, led the U.S. central bank during the longest and deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Bernanke will be paid an annual fee and won’t own a stake in the firm or get a bonus, The New York Times reported.
Talks between Citadel, which oversees about $26 billion in assets, and Bernanke started six months ago, a person with knowledge of the situation said. He will initially start meeting Citadel’s investors in Europe and Asia.
Griffin said Bernanke’s insights on monetary policy and capital markets will be “extremely valuable to our team and to our investors.”
Bernanke joins a roster of top policymakers who have recently moved to Wall Street. Former Fed governor Jeremy Stein last month was hired by BlueMountain Capital Management to help the New York hedge fund analyze the effect of central bank decisions. Former Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner last year joined New York private equity firm Warburg Pincus as president.
Bernanke was a Princeton University economics professor and chairman of President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers before succeeding Alan Greenspan as chief of the U.S. central bank in 2006. He left the Fed in January 2014 after two four-year terms as chairman.
Bernanke will remain a full-time fellow at the Brookings Institution.
This story was originally published April 16, 2015 at 9:44 AM with the headline "Former Fed chairman Ben Bernanke is joining the Citadel hedge fund."