Harvard professor, ex-Goldman exec to head Dallas Fed

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said Monday that Robert Steven Kaplan, a Harvard University professor and former Goldman Sachs executive, will become its new head.

Kaplan's appointment as president and chief executive of the Dallas Fed will take effect on September 8, succeeding Richard Fisher, who retired in March.

Kaplan will represent the Texas, northern Louisiana and southern New Mexico region on the Federal Open Market Committee, the policy-setting arm of the Federal Reserve.

The FOMC is made up of the seven members of the Fed's board of governors, the president of the New York Fed, and four of the remaining 11 regional Fed presidents, who serve one-year terms on a rotating basis.

Kaplan is expected to join the FOMC in 2017.

Kaplan, 58, is a business management professor and senior associate dean at Harvard Business School.

Prior to joining Harvard in 2006, he spent two decades at Goldman Sachs, rising to vice chairman with global responsibility for the Wall Street bank's investment banking and investment management divisions.

Kaplan earned a bachelor of science degree from the University of Kansas in 1979 and a master of business administration degree from Harvard in 1983.

"The Bank's search committee considered a broad pool of excellent candidates to ensure we met our goal of finding someone who has a deep understanding of the economy, financial system and monetary policy -- yet who also sincerely appreciates the impact decisions made by the Federal Reserve have on people from all walks of life," said Dallas Fed board chair Renu Khator in a statement.

"Rob is committed to improving the economy for all Americans," she said.