A Snapshot of Fed Players

As a member of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, Kroszner played a key role in helping the administration shape policy to respond to the wave of corporate accounting scandals that rocked Wall Street. Kroszner's areas of research include corporate governance, conflicts of interest at financial firms and international financial crises.

Frederic Mishkin, Federal Reserve Board member

Whether on land or sea, Mishkin is at home.

The Fed governor, 57, likes cutting through the water on his small sailboat, which is moored on the Hudson River. He also works up a sweat cross-country skiing, bicycling and roller blading.

Mishkin brings sterling academic credentials to the Fed job.

An author of more than 15 books, Mishkin's academic research has focused on how monetary policy affects financial markets and the economy at large. He has taught at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Princeton University and Columbia University.

Charles Plosser, president, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Plosser is a music aficionado. And, his musical tastes are wide-ranging -- classical, jazz, country, folk and good old rock and roll.

Named head of the regional Fed bank in August 2006, Plosser can call upon both his academic and business experiences to help get a read on the economy's vital signs. Plosser was an economics professor at the University of Rochester.

Plosser also has served as a consultant to some corporations, including Chase Manhattan Bank and Eastman Kodak Co., providing clients with advice on strategic planning, forecasting, portfolio and pension fund management, capital budgeting and other things.

Besides music, Plosser, 59, likes to play golf and get lost in a good book. He also enjoys traveling.

Richard Fisher, president, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

Fisher collects rare and first-edition books and documents. Some of his treasures: A first-edition of Thomas Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia"; several historical Texas documents; a complete collection of all first prints of Winston Churchill's books and speeches; and works by the famous economists Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes.

A voracious reader, Fisher's favorite authors include Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Langston Hughes, P.G. Wodehouse and Evelyn Waugh. Recent reads include "The Shadow of the Wind," "The Secret Life of Lobsters," and "A Thousand Splendid Suns."

Favorite music: Vintage rock and roll, all classical music -- except for Russian composers and anything by Robert Earl Keen, whose music falls into the folk and country genres.

A first-generation American, Fisher's father was Australian; his mother was Norwegian-born and raised in South Africa. Fisher was born in Los Angeles and raised in Mexico City. He is fluent in Spanish.

To pay his way through Harvard University, Fisher worked three jobs.

Fisher, 58, has worked in banking, ran his own investment firm and has experience as a Washington policymaker -- serving at the Treasury Department during the Carter administration and as a trade official during the Clinton administration. He took over the Dallas Fed in April 2005.

Gary Stern, president, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

Stern, 63, is one of the longest-serving presidents in the Federal Reserve system. He is the only member of the Federal Open Market Committee -- the group that decides the direction of interest rates in the United States -- to have served with former Fed chairmen Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan and the current chief, Bernanke.

A native of Wisconsin, Stern joined the regional Fed bank in January 1982 as a senior vice president and director of research. He rose to the presidency some three years later. Before going to the Minneapolis Fed, Stern was a partner in a New-York based economic consulting firm. He also worked seven years at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York -- the mission control center for the Fed's daily market operations.

Stern co-wrote "Too Big to Fail: The Hazards of Bank Bailouts," published by The Brookings Institution in 2004.

Sandra Pianalto, president, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

Pianalto -- born in the small Italian village of Valli del Pasubio -- came to the United States when she was 5. Her family settled in northeast Ohio. She traces her interest in public service and her career path to her childhood days helping her parents study for their U.S. citizenship test.

She joined the regional bank in 1983 as an economist in the research department, rose through the ranks and some 20 years later took the helm.

Before that Pianalto, 53, worked in Washington as an economist at the Fed's headquarters and became well versed in politics and budget making as a staff member on the House Budget Committee.

Pianalto serves on the boards of many community organizations in her region, including University Hospitals, the United Way of Greater Cleveland and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.