Convocation 2015: Economist, White House advisor, Paul A. Volcker receives honorary degree from U of T
Published: June 5, 2015
The University of Toronto is recognizing Paul A. Volcker, a leading American economist widely credited with ending the high levels of inflation seen in the United States during the 1970s and early 1980s, with an honorary degree.
In the course of his career, Volcker worked in the United States Federal Government for almost 30 years, culminating in two terms as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 1979-1987, a critical period in bringing a high level of inflation to an end.
In earlier stages of his career, Volcker served as Undersecretary of the Treasury for Monetary Affairs during the 1970s, a period of historic change in international monetary arrangements. He was subsequently President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and in earlier years was an official of The Chase Manhattan Bank.
For 10 years, he served as Chairman of Wolfensohn & Co., retiring upon the merger of that firm with Bankers Trust, as well as Professor Emeritus of International Economic Policy at Princeton. From 1996-1999, Volcker headed The Independent Committee of Eminent Persons, formed by Swiss and Jewish organizations to investigate deposit accounts and other assets in Swiss banks of victims of Nazi persecution and to arrange for their disposition.
From 2000-2005, Volcker served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the newly formed International Accounting Standards Committee overseeing a renewed effort to develop consistent, high-quality accounting standards acceptable in all countries. Upon leaving public service in 1987, and again in 2003, he headed private, non-partisan Commissions on the Public Service, each recommending a sweeping overhaul of the organization and personnel practices of the United States Federal Government.
In 2004, Volcker was asked by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to chair the Independent Inquiry into the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program, resulting in identification of substantial corruption and malfeasance. In 2007, Volcker was asked by the president of the World Bank to chair a panel of experts to review the operations of the Department of Institutional Integrity. That effort has culminated in broad reform of the Bank’s anti-corruption effort. In November 2008, President-Elect Obama chose Volcker to head the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board which ended in February 2011.
Concerned with the apparent erosion of trust in government in the United States and the related sense of too many failures of public management, Volcker in 2013 launched The “Volcker Alliance.” A primary objective of the Alliance is to work with Universities and their schools of public policy and management to strengthen training programs for civil servants, to develop relevant research, and more generally, to enhance the effectiveness and stature of public service.
Educated at Princeton, Harvard, and the London School of Economics, Volcker is a recipient of honorary doctorates from each of his alma maters, as well as a number of other American and foreign universities.
Convocation ceremonies at U of T will run until June 19 at the downtown campus. More than 13,000 students are expected to graduate and more than 44,000 visitors are expected to join in the celebrations.
