Who is Adriana Kugler and what her exit mean for Trump's pick for next Fed Chair

Mint

13 hours ago

Governor Adriana Kugler has stepped down from the US Federal Reserve board, providing US President Donald Trump with an important chance to shape monetary policy before the 2026 transition of the central bank's chair.
Kugler is the first Hispanic to serve on the Fed's Board of Governors. She submitted her resignation letter on Friday, effective August 8. With her term ending in January 2026, her early exit comes amid Trump's latest attack on Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
Dr. Adriana D. Kugler was appointed on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System since September 13, 2023, for a term until January 31, 2026.
Before her appointment to the Board, she was the US Executive Director at the World Bank Group. She is currently on leave from Georgetown University, where she serves as a professor of Public Policy and Economics.
She previously held the position of chief economist at the US Department of Labour between 2011 and 2013. Additionally, Dr. Kugler was a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Centre for the Study of Poverty and Inequality at Stanford University.
Kugler also served as the elected chair of the Business and Economics Statistics Section of the American Statistical Association, a member of the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy of the National Academies of Sciences, and a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Bureau of Labour Statistics.
In terms of education, she pursued a BA in economics and political science from McGill University and a PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Under Fed regulations, the chair must be selected from the present members of the Fed's board. Trump, who has been repeatedly urging Powell to resign, Kugler's departure may impact his timeline to choose the next central bank chair. If the US President opts to select an outsider for the board, like National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett or former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, he might not have the opportunity to do so again soon, Bloomberg reported.
Powell's term as chair concludes in May, but his role as a governor continues until 2028. Although outgoing chairs usually resign from the board, Powell has not disclosed his future plans. If he stays, Trump won't have another chance to fill a board vacancy until 2028.
In that scenario, the president might be obliged to appoint the person he plans to promote next May to fill the Kugler vacancy. If he is keen to quickly add a new loyalist to the board, he will need to decide promptly who that chair will be. There is no indication that Trump has decided on a candidate yet. However, the contenders include Hassett, Warsh, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and current Fed Governor Christopher Waller, the report added.