Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

Rich Rasdall is the First Vice President and Chief Operating Officer responsible for directing the Bank s operations throughout the District. Rich began his career at the Bank in 1972 as an analyst in the Personnel department. He subsequently held several supervisory and managerial positions within the Administrative Services and Operations Divisions. He was named an officer of the Bank in 1978 and to his current position on May 1, 1994. Rich is a native of Kansas and a graduate of Kansas State University and the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Rich resides in Gladstone, Missouri, is married and has a son.

Gordon H. Sellon Jr. is currently Senior Vice President and Director of Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. At the Bank, he is engaged in research on various topics relating to monetary policy, financial markets and institutions, and payments systems and has written articles both for economics journals and for the Bank's Economic Review. A native of Massachusetts, he received his bachelor's degree from Harvard University, and master's and doctorate in economics from the University of Michigan. Before joining the Bank, Gordon taught economics at the University of Kansas. He also served as a visiting associate professor of economics at the University of Michigan.

Chad Wilkerson joined the Oklahoma City Branch Office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in early 2006 as Branch Executive. In this role, he serves as the Bank's regional economist and representative in the state of Oklahoma, recruits and works closely with the branch's board of directors and is responsible for briefing the Kansas City Fed's president a member of the Federal Open Market Committee on economic and business activity in the state. He also supervises the Bank's monthly Survey of Manufacturers. Wilkerson has been with the Federal Reserve for eight years, beginning in Kansas City in 1998 as a research associate. He was promoted to policy economist in 2002. His research focuses on the Tenth District's regional economy, particularly in the area of regional and local labor markets. Wilkerson is a board member of the United Way of Central Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Council on Economic Education and a member of The Downtown Club and Economic Club of Oklahoma. He holds a master's degree in public policy studies from the University of Chicago and a bachelor's degree in institutions and policy from William Jewell College. As part of his undergraduate program, he studied economics for a year at Oxford University in England. Wilkerson is from the St. Louis area and attended high school in Montgomery City, Mo., a small town in central Missouri. He enjoys attending baseball games, playing golf, traveling and reading. He is married and has two daughters.

Jason Henderson joined the Omaha Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in August 2006 as Branch Executive. In this role, he serves as the Bank's regional economist and representative in the state of Nebraska, recruits and works closely with the branch's board of directors and is responsible for briefing the Kansas City Fed's president a member of the Federal Open Market Committee on economic and business activity in the state. Prior to being promoted into this position, he served as Senior Economist with the Center for the Study of Rural America at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Jason began his second stint at the Bank in 2001 after completing his Ph.D. degree from Purdue University. He also holds a M.S. degree in agricultural economics from Purdue University and a bachelor's degree in economics from Central College in Pella, Iowa. Jason's research interests include rural development, agricultural economics, and industrial organization. His research focuses on farm and off-farm business activities vital to the rural economy. Jason has published research on rural entrepreneurship, farmland values, the growth of knowledge-based activity in rural America, the use of electronic commerce in agricultural industries and the location, and growth of value-added food manufacturing activity. He is heavily involved in tracking the rural economy for the Bank's monetary policy responsibilities. Currently, he is leading a research initiative evaluating rural America's entrepreneurial base. Jason presents frequently to a wide range of rural business, financial and policy audiences . His articles on high-growth entrepreneurs and a knowledge-driven rural economy have been widely cited by policy officials, other researchers, and leading media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal,The Financial Times, and The USA Today. Jason is a native of Arlington, Iowa, where he was raised on a small dairy farm. He is married and has three children.

Todd Clark is a Vice President and Economist in the Economic Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. He joined the department in 1992. A native of Indiana, Todd received a bachelor's degree in economics and mathematics from Wabash College in 1985 and a doctorate in economics from the University of Michigan in 1992. He has published research on a variety of topics, including the sources of business cycles in different countries and regions of the United States, the relationship between inflation and long-term growth, the relationship between producer and consumer prices, the measurement of inflation, and the evaluation of forecasts. Todd is currently an associate editor of the Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking.

Craig Hakkio is Special Advisor on Economic Policy at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. In this capacity, he conducts research on international macroeconomic policy and monetary policy. He also advises the President of the Bank, who serves on the Federal Open Market Committee, the principal monetary policymaking body of the Federal Reserve System. Craig has written a number of articles in professional journals and conference proceedings. Mr. Hakkio holds an A.B. degree from Kenyon College and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from the University of Chicago. After working as an assistant professor of economics at Northwestern University, he joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 1984 as a senior economist. From 1987 to 1988, he was a senior staff economist at the President s Council of Economic Advisers. He served as Senior Vice President and Director of Research from 1997 to 2006. He was named Special Advisor on Economic Policy (Senior Vice President) on July 1, 2006.

Ed Knotek is an Economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. He joined the Economic Research Department in August, 2005. Mr. Knotek received a B.A. in mathematics-economics and Spanish from Denison University. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan. Mr. Knotek's research interests focus on price dynamics, in particular the causes and consequences of price rigidity and the interplay between inflation and information.

Julapa Jagtiani is a Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Prior to moving to Kansas City, she was a Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (1998-2001) and Associate Professor in Finance at the City University of New York (1994-1997), Syracuse University (1990-1994) and University of Calgary (1989-1990). She has also taught at the New York University Stern School of Business (1989). Julapa was awarded the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship for her graduate studies (1980-1986), and received her MBA (Finance) and Ph.D. (Finance & International Business) from New York University Stern School of Business. She has published her research in several finance and economic journals, including Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial Services Research, Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, and Journal of Banking and Finance.

Richard J. Sullivan is a senior economist in the Payments System Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Since joining the Federal Reserve in 1994, Mr. Sullivan has specialized in the economics of banking markets and payments. He has published studies on the relationship between bank ownership structure and operating efficiency, profitability in interstate banking, bank lending to small business, and the impact of electronic banking on bank performance. He is currently conducting research on determinants of a bank s decision to adopt Internet banking, on the relationship between ownership structure and bank risk, and on the implications of recent changes in the ATM and debit card industry. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Mr. Sullivan taught at Holy Cross College and the University of Colorado. His research has been published in Federal Reserve publications and in academic journals such as Economica, The Journal of Banking and Finance and The Journal of Economic History. He received a bachelor's degree in business management from Northern Illinois University and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois-Urbana.

Terri R. Bradford is a Specialist in the Payments System Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Among her responsibilities are monitoring and analyzing global payments system developments, authoring articles for the Payments System Research Briefing, a Tenth District publication, and making presentations to internal and external audiences, especially related to emerging payments instruments. Ms. Bradford joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 1989. Prior to joining the Payments System Research Department in 2000, she held various positions in the Retail Payments, Payments System Support, Savings Bonds, and Automation Departments of the Bank. Ms. Bradford received her B.S. degree in business from Kansas State University.

Thaddeus began working for the FSPA in August, 2008. He has a BSBA in Finance and Economics from Rockhurst Jesuit College in Kansas City, MO. Thaddeus has over 15 years of financial experience including five years with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, three years of public accounting as a financial statement auditor and most recently, over three years as a controller for a builder in Cortez, FL.

Zhu Wang is a senior economist in the Payments System Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. He joined the Federal Reserve in 2004 and works on the theory of industry dynamics and its applications. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Mr. Wang conducted research in the areas of industrial organization and dynamics, technology innovation and diffusion, and network economics. His work has been presented at various academic conferences and published in refereed journals. He received a bachelor's degree in economics from Beijing University (China), a master's degree in economics from Rutgers University (New Brunswick) and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago.

Barbara Mowry is an experienced executive, having served as an officer in two Fortune 500 companies, and as an intrapreneur and entrepreneur. She has led companies through rapid growth, international expansion and has been on the leading-edge of the technology industry by launching new products, patented technology, and a track record of assisting customers and businesses with solutions focused on their success. Prior to Silver Creek Systems, Barbara was Chairman and CEO at Requisite Technology where she grew the company rapidly, expanded into over 15 international markets, and shaped Requisite to be the world's leading software company for product catalogs enabling B2B electronic commerce. During Barbara's tenure, the company was recognized by Deloitte and Touche as a " Technology Fast 50" winner. In addition, she has served as Sr. VP Customer Satisfaction and the New Products Division (high-speed Internet, telephony, and digital television services) of TCI Comcast Cable. She is also an experienced airline executive, having served as an officer of United Airlines where she created and ran a division that became a leader in Customer Relationship Management, which included the highly successful Mileage Plus program. Barbara has received numerous awards including; Ernst &Young's "Entrepreneur of the Year" finalist; "Technology Luminary" award from the Committee of 200, an organization of some of the country's most prominent businesswomen; and "Women in Leadership" award from the University of Michigan Business School. She serves on the Board of Directors of Gaiam (NASDAQ-GAIA), the Economic Advisory Council for the Federal Reserve Board of Kansas City, served as a judge at the Ernst and Young World Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in 2005 and is a member of the Board of Overseers of the Carlson School at the University of Minnesota. Barbara has a bachelor's degree from Miami University, Oxford Ohio, and an MBA from the University of Minnesota.

Raised in rural Georgia, Herman Cain adopted the lessons of his parents - dedication to hard work and the importance of faith - and carried them with him to the pinnacle of the corporate world. Cain earned a degree in mathematics from Morehouse College in 1967 and later earned a master's degree in computer science from Purdue University, while working as a mathematician for the Department of the Navy. He then worked as a business analyst for The Coca-Cola Company. In 1968, he married his wife, Gloria and they have two grown children. In 1977, Herman Cain joined The Pillsbury Company and within three years, at the age of 34, rose to the position of Vice President of Corporate Systems and Services. Cain, reflecting his father's drive to seek greater challenges, then set his sights on a corporate presidency. With this goal ahead of him and his mother's faith to support him, Cain resigned his senior position and started on another career path - the restaurant industry. He started from the ground up by making hamburgers at Pillsbury's Burger King division. Nine months later, he was managing 400 Burger King units in the Philadelphia region, the country's poorest performer. Within three years, his region had earned the reputation for excellence and was the company's best. In 1986, Pillsbury appointed Cain to the presidency of the then financially troubled Godfather's Pizza, Inc. chain headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. In 14 short months, under Cain's leadership, the chain regained profitability. In 1988, he led his executive team in a buyout of the company from Pillsbury. Cain was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Restaurant Association in 1998. In 1994 to 1995, he served as Chairman of the Board of Directors. While leading this association, he developed the organization into a pro-business voice via national debates and speeches concerning health care reform, employment policies, and taxation. Following this experience, he was appointed to serve on the Economic Growth and Tax Reform Commission in addition serving as Chairman and Member of the Board of Directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. He then became a senior advisor to the 1996 Dole/Kemp campaign for the Presidency. Herman Cain continued the responsibilities of President and Chairman of Godfather's Pizza, Incorporated, while beginning a second career delivering national keynote speeches. Using his messages as the foundation, he created his own leadership consulting company, T.H.E. Incorporated (The Hermanator Experience). T.H.E. packages his speaking and develops his products, including books, videotapes and audio tapes, CDs of gospel music, and promotes his keynote speeches. He has authored three books to date on topics ranging from leadership to self-empowerment including Leadership is Common Sense and CEO of Self. In 2002, he became an Executive Lecturer for the Gallup Organization. In 1996, Cain became CEO and President of the National Restaurant Association. He had been a member of the NRA Board since 1988, and had served as its elected volunteer chairman in 1994/1995. Cain thus became the only volunteer chairman to become the full-time CEO and President of the Association while still a member of the Board. Cain headed the NRA in this position for two and a half years. In 1999, Cain sought to leverage his restaurant experience with the technology market and he became CEO and President of RetailDNA. Its mission is to provide innovative marketing solutions to the retail sector. Today, Herman is a national syndicated radio talk show host "The Herman Cain Show" out of Atlanta's WSB 750am, is a FOX News Business Commentator and is a syndicated columnist. Cain remains President and CEO of T.H.E., Incorporated and serves on the Boards of Directors for AGCO Corporation, Aquila, Incorporated, Reader's Digest Association, Incorporated, Hallmark Cards Incorporated and Whirlpool Corporation. In 2004, he ran as a candidate for the United States Senate...