Stephen Friedman served as chairperson of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board and Intelligence Oversight Board from October 2005 until the end of the administration of George W. Bush. Friedman graduated from Cornell University in 1959, where he was a member of the Quill and Dagger society and a star wrestler. He received his law degree from Columbia Law School in 1962.

 

Stephens worked for 28 years at Goldman Sachs, joining the firm in 1966 and becoming a partner in 1973. He went on to hold numerous executive roles: co-chief operating officer from 1987 to 1990; co-chairman from 1990 to 1992; and sole chairman from 1992 to 1994.

 

From 1998 to 2002, he served as a senior principal of Marsh & McLennan Capital Corp., a private equity firm, which later became Stone Point Capital.

 

From 2002 to 2004, Stephens served under President Bush as Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and director of the National Economic Council.

 

In May 2005 he became a senior advisor to Stone Point Capital, and in June 2006 chairman of the firm. Friedman also has served as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since January 2008.

 

He has served on the boards of directors of Goldman Sachs, Fannie Mae and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. He also has served as chairman of the board of Harbor Point Limited, a Trident III portfolio company, chairman emeritus of the board of Columbia University, chairman emeritus of the executive committee of the Brookings Institution and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a trustee of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Aspen Institute.

 

Friedman served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New Yorkfrom January 2008 until he resigned in May 2009 amid controversy over his ownership of stock in Goldman Sachs.

 

Stephen Friedman ’59 named Bush’s chief economic advisor (by Linda Myers, Cornell Chronicle)