Esther L. George served as president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from 2011 to January 2023, when she faced mandatory retirement from the Federal Reserve. As president, George led a workforce of more than 2,000 employees located at the Bank’s Kansas City office and Branch offices in Denver, Oklahoma City, and Omaha who supported the Kansas City Fed’s role in national monetary policy, financial institution supervision, and the provision of payment and financial services to depository institutions and the U.S. Treasury.
Explore Esther George's career
George joined the Fed in 1982 and served much of her early career in the Division of Supervision and Risk Management. She began by becoming a commissioned bank examiner and eventually served for ten years as the District’s chief regulator. In that capacity, she was responsible for oversight of the District's state-chartered member banks, nearly 1,000 bank and financial holding companies, as well as the Bank’s discount window and risk management functions. She was directly involved in the Tenth District’s banking supervision and discount window lending activities during the banking crisis of the 1980s and post-9/11.
She was also a chair of the Federal Reserve System's Community Banking Organizations Management Group and served as the acting director of the Federal Reserve's Division of Banking Supervision and Regulation at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C.
As president of the Kansas City Fed, she served on the Federal Open Market Committee, which is responsible for setting monetary policy for the United States. In addition, she hosted the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, an annual gathering of global central bankers, academics, and policymakers held in the Tenth District state of Wyoming.
George is a native of Missouri.
See Esther George’s final financial disclosure form here. Read her 2012 statement of Reserve Bank boards of directors.
Her 2021 form is available here.