Interview with Richard Berner

Richard Berner

Director, Office of Financial Research 
U.S. Treasury 
Former Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury 
 

Biography

Richard Berner has served as the first Director of the Office of Financial Research (OFR) since January 2013.

Prior to his confirmation as OFR Director, Berner served as Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury with responsibility for standing up the OFR.  Before joining the Treasury in April 2011, he was Co-Head of Global Economics at Morgan Stanley.  Berner previously served as Chief Economist at Mellon Bank and as a member of Mellon's Senior Management Committee.  He served as a Senior Economist for Morgan Stanley, Salomon Brothers, and Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, and as Director of the Washington, D.C., office of Wharton Econometrics.  For seven years, he worked on the research staff of the Federal Reserve Board in Washington.  He has also been an adjunct professor of economics at Carnegie-Mellon University and George Washington University. 

Berner has been a member of the Economic Advisory Panel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Panel of Economic Advisers of the Congressional Budget Office, the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the Advisory Committee of the Bureau of Economic Analysis. 

Berner has won forecasting awards from Blue Chip Economic Indicators, The Wall Street Journal, Market News, and the National Association for Business Economics.  He was also awarded the 2007 William Butler Award for Excellence in Business Economics. 

Berner received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.