Adam S. Posen to Become New President of Peterson Institute for International Economics

WASHINGTON, May 18, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Adam S. Posen, a widely respected economist who has been serving as an external member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England since 2009, has been chosen by the board of directors of the Peterson Institute for International Economics as its next President. Dr. Posen, deputy director of the Institute during 2007–09, will succeed C. Fred Bergsten, founding director of the Institute since its creation in 1981. The appointment will take effect January 1, 2013. Dr. Posen will complete his term as an external member of the Monetary Policy Committee, which concludes August 31, 2012.

Dr. Posen was selected unanimously today by the Peterson Institute's board of directors, following a recommendation by its executive committee. The executive committee functioned as the search committee under the leadership of its chairman, James W. Owens, former chairman and CEO of Caterpillar, Inc. The search began after Dr. Bergsten announced his intention to step down earlier this year. At the request of the Board, Dr. Bergsten will remain active at the Institute as a senior fellow and president emeritus.

"I am honored and excited to be chosen to lead the Peterson Institute in the years ahead," said Dr. Posen. "Our mission is more important than ever: to provide the objective relevant research enabling us to advise and challenge policymakers on how best to make globalization beneficial and sustainable. Thanks to Fred Bergsten and the outstanding team of scholars we have assembled, the Institute's intellectual influence, nonpartisan credibility, and convening power are greater than ever."

Dr. Posen, 45, has been serving a three-year term as an external member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of England, ending in August 2012. During this period, he successfully persuaded the MPC to expand monetary policy aggressively to counter the weakness of the British economy, and developed a new strategy of "credit easing," which rose to the top of the UK economic agenda. In April, an article in the Atlantic magazine named Dr. Posen to its international team of "superstar central bankers."

Dr. Posen joined the Peterson Institute in 1997 after serving as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he was co-author with Ben Bernanke and colleagues of the globally influential study Inflation Targeting. In his first project for the Institute, he wrote the definitive studies of Japan's Great Recession, helping to set the policy program that led to Japan's recovery from 2002–07. He has a global reputation for expertise on macroeconomic policy, particularly monetary policy, as well as economic forecasting, European and Japanese political economy, and the resolution of financial crises.

Mr. Owens said that one of Dr. Posen's many strengths is that he will bring to the new job a depth of leadership experience at the Institute. As deputy director in 2007–09, he led the Institute's expanded outreach initiatives to the press and the general public, including the creation of an in-house media center. He established relationships with a growing range of foundations and corporate supporters and, with Dr. Bergsten, recruited several permanent members of the Institute's current senior research staff.

Peter G. Peterson, founding and current chairman of the board of directors of the Institute, expressed his great pleasure that Dr. Posen will bring a unique combination of attributes to his new position: "Adam has attained worldwide recognition as a leading policymaker due to his very influential role at the Bank of England over the past three years. He has an outstanding reputation as a scholar on a wide range of international economic issues."

James W. Owens said: "The executive committee, functioning as the search committee, was delighted that Dr. Posen's record, interviews and references enabled him to prevail over the outstanding list of candidates for the position that it identified and considered."

He has also been a consultant on economic and foreign policy issues to several US government agencies (including the Departments of State and Treasury, the Council of Economic Advisors, and the National Intelligence Council), the European Commission, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, and the International Monetary Fund. In 2008–09, Dr. Posen advised the UK Cabinet Office and then Prime Minister Gordon Brown on crisis responses and preparations for the successful London G-20 Summit. Dr. Posen is author of the book Restoring Japan's Economic Growth (PIIE, 1998; Japanese translation, 1999), coauthor with Ben Bernanke, et al. of Inflation Targeting: Lessons from the International Experience (Princeton University Press, 1999), and editor and coauthor of four collected volumes including The Euro at Ten: The Next Global Currency? (PIIE, 2009) and The Japanese Financial Crisis and its Parallels with U.S. Experience (PIIE, 2000; Japanese translation, 2001).

SOURCE Peterson Institute for International Economics