WASHINGTON — The search firm hired by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago to help find a new president includes among its executives the wife of Austan Goolsbee, the person ultimately picked for the role.
The Chicago Fed announced Austan Goolsbee’s selection in December. He took over the leadership of the bank on Jan. 9, and is a voting member of the Fed’s interest-rate policy committee this year.
Robin Goolsbee is listed as a Chicago-based managing director of Diversified Search Group, a firm the Chicago Fed announced in April had been retained to assist with the recruitment of a new president. The Chicago Fed’s search process eventually settled on her husband.
The connection hasn’t been previously reported and wasn’t publicly acknowledged by the central bank until it issued statements Wednesday evening following inquiries by Bloomberg News.
“We have every confidence in the integrity of the search process which concluded with Austan Goolsbee being hired as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago,” said Michael Adleman, a Chicago Fed spokesman. “During the search process, members of the search committee, which was composed of Class B and C directors of the Chicago Fed’s board, were made aware Robin Goolsbee was an employee of the search firm and that she had no involvement in the search for the Chicago Fed president.”
A Federal Reserve Board spokesperson said: “We were made aware of her employment and she played no role in the search.”
An announcement from the firm on Robin Goolsbee’s hiring said she previously worked for eight years as senior principal at Business Talent Group, which was acquired in 2021 by recruiter Heidrick & Struggles.
Diversified Search Group, which is headquartered in Philadelphia, said the search for the Chicago Fed president was led by two managing directors, one based in Atlanta, and the other based in Los Angeles. “Throughout this search, the integrity and confidentiality of the process was followed by our firm, and Robin Goolsbee was not involved with this search whatsoever,” the firm said in a statement.
A video about the search posted on the Chicago Fed’s website includes comments from J. Veronica Biggins, an Atlanta-based managing partner at Diversified Search.
Regional Fed presidents are picked by local boards of directors at each regional bank, and approved by the Fed Board of Governors in Washington.
Fed Governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman — both appointed by President Donald Trump — abstained from supporting Austan Goolsbee’s appointment, which was unanimously recommended by the Chicago Fed’s local board.
Governor abstentions on Fed presidents are rare, especially since Waller is the oversight governor for reserve bank operations.
The revelation of Robin Goolsbee’s position adds to questions on the politics around her husband’s appointment, said Sarah Binder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who researches Fed governance.
“Regardless of the letter of the law about whether these issues count as conflicts, it is the perception of potential conflicts that raises red flags,” Binder said.
The presidential search process “needs to be beyond reproach,” she said, if the Fed wants to protect its independence.
Austan Goolsbee, 53, is widely considered qualified for the job: Before joining the Chicago Fed, he spent nearly three decades as a professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, and holds a doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He also previously advised Democrats including former President Barack Obama and has a history of robustly defending Democratic policies and criticizing Republican ones on TV and radio talk shows.
The Chicago Fed selected Goolsbee to replace Charles Evans, who retired in January after 15 years helming the Chicago Fed.
