Eugene Meyer
1875 – 1959 American financier, Federal Reserve chairman, first World Bank president, newspaper publisher
American financier who chaired the Federal Reserve, served as the first president of the World Bank, and owned The Washington Post.
- Religion
- Jewish
- Affiliations
- Federal Reserve, World Bank, The Washington Post
Eugene Meyer made a fortune in investment banking before moving into public service. He led wartime and Depression-era agencies, chaired the Federal Reserve Board from 1930 to 1933, and bought The Washington Post at a bankruptcy auction in 1933, rebuilding it into a major newspaper. In June 1946 he became the first president of the newly created World Bank, though he resigned after only six months over disputes about the bank's independence and the scope of the job. His daughter Katharine Graham later ran the Post.
Connections
- associate of Harry Dexter White — Worked in the early Bretton Woods institutions that White helped design.
In the timeline
- 1930 Eugene Meyer appointed to head the Fed central figure
- 1932 Reconstruction Finance Corporation established mentioned
- 1944 – 1946 Founding of the World Bank (IBRD) first president
- 1945 Founding of the World Bank first president