Alan Greenspan
Born: 6 March 1926
Birthplace: New York, New York
Best known as: Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board of Governors, 1987-2006
Alan Greenspan was chairman of the Federal Reserve, and one of the most powerful financial men in America, from 1988 until his retirement in 2006. Greenspan had a brief fling as a professional jazz saxophonist before attending New York University and then joining an economics consulting firm in New York City in 1954. He advised presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and was named Chairman of the Board of Governors for the Federal Reserve System in 1987, a post he held under presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush the elder, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. As chairman, Greenspan was largely responsible for directing U.S. national monetary policy; he is often credited with keeping inflation at historically low levels, and sometimes criticized for the boom-and-bust nature of the economy in dot-com era. He stepped down from the post on 31 January 2006, and was succeeded by former Princeton econonomics department chair Ben Bernanke.