Boston Fed Announces 2021 Board of Directors
Paxson of Brown University to serve as chair, Thomas of Rapid7 joins as deputy chair; Hulit of Maine Community Bancorp and Smith of CDC Foundation elected to board
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston on Wednesday announced its 2021 board of directors, effective Jan. 1. Christina Hull Paxson, president of Brown University, will serve as the new chair of the board after serving as deputy chair since 2019. Corey Thomas, chair and chief executive officer of Rapid7, will join the board and serve as deputy chair.
Additionally, Jeanne A. Hulit, president and chief executive officer of Maine Community Bancorp, and Lauren A. Smith, chief health equity and strategy officer for the CDC Foundation, have been elected to join the board.
John R. Ciulla, president and chief executive officer of Webster Financial Corporation, will again serve as the Boston Fed’s member of the Federal Reserve System’s Federal Advisory Council.
The Federal Reserve Act requires that each Reserve Bank have nine directors. Three Class A directors represent member banks in each district, three Class B directors represent the public, and three Class C directors represent the public with due consideration to the interests of agriculture, commerce, industry, services, labor, and consumers. Member banks elect Class A and Class B directors. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington appoints Class C directors and designates the chair and deputy chair from this group.
The members of the 2021 board of directors are:
- Christina Hull Paxson, chair and Class C director, is president of Brown University and professor of economics and public policy. Prior to her appointment as president in 2012, she was dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs and the Hughes Rogers Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University. While at Princeton, Paxson also served as chair of the Department of Economics. In addition, she was founding director of the National Institute on Aging Center for the Economics and Demography of Aging and was a founder of the Center for Health and Wellbeing. She served as vice president of the American Economic Association in 2012 and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2020, Paxson was appointed chair of the board of directors for the Association of American Universities. Paxson joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s board of directors in 2016 and served as deputy chair starting in 2019.
- Corey Thomas, deputy chair and Class C director, is chair and chief executive officer of Rapid7, a cybersecurity and analytics company based in Boston. Thomas also sits on several boards, including at the Cyber Threat Alliance, the Massachusetts Cybersecurity Strategy Council, LPL Financial, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. Thomas previously served on the U.S. Commerce Department's Digital Economy Board of Advisors. Prior to joining Rapid7, Thomas was vice president of marketing at Parallels, Inc.; group project manager of the Microsoft Server and Tools division, where he steered product planning for Microsoft’s data platform; and a consultant at Deloitte Consulting. Thomas has been a member of the Boston Fed’s External Diversity Advisory Council since 2019.
- Chandler J. Howard, a Class A director, is the former president and chief executive officer of Liberty Bank, a Connecticut-based financial institution serving more than 200,000 consumers and businesses through 55 retail banking locations. Howard held this position from 2007 to 2019 as part of his 35-plus-year career with the bank, and he remains a member of the board. He previously held various positions of increasing responsibility for People’s United Bank, Bank of America, and Fleet Bank, among others. Howard currently serves as vice chair of the Middlesex Health board of directors and as a member of the board of trustees for the Goodspeed Opera House. He has also served on several boards and councils, including the Connecticut Bankers Association, the Connecticut Business Industry Association, the Greater Hartford Community Foundation, the American Bankers Association, and the FDIC Community Bankers Advisory Council. He is a former member of the Boston Fed’s Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council.
- Jeanne A. Hulit, a Class A director, is president and chief executive officer of Maine Community Bank and its holding company, Maine Community Bancorp. Hulit has more than two decades of banking experience, and she led a Maine-based manufacturer. She also has several years of public sector experience at the state and federal level. She joined Maine Community Bancorp after serving as president of Village Candle in Wells, Maine. Hulit has also served as president of Community Banking for Northeast Bank, senior vice president for commercial lending at Citizens Bank, and vice president of commercial lending at Key Bank. Hulit was President Barack Obama’s acting administrator of the Small Business Administration in 2013. She currently serves on the board of directors of the Maine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Maine Bankers Association, the Opportunity Alliance, and MEMIC.
- Bruce Van Saun, a Class A director, is chairman and chief executive officer of Citizens Financial Group, Inc. Van Saun joined Citizens Financial Group in 2013 and has more than 30 years of financial services experience. He joined Citizens after serving as Royal Bank of Scotland group finance director and as an executive director on the RBS Board from 2009 to 2013. Prior to joining RBS, he held a number of senior positions with Bank of New York and later Bank of New York Mellon. Van Saun has served on a number of boards in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and he is a current director of Moody’s Corporation. Van Saun is also a board member for the Bank Policy Institute, the Partnership for Rhode Island, and Jobs for Massachusetts. Van Saun served as Federal Advisory Council representative for the First District in 2017 and 2018.
- Lizanne Kindler, a Class B director, is chief executive officer of Talbots, an omni-channel retailer of women’s apparel, shoes, and accessories. She also serves as chair of Coldwater Creek. Kindler has extensive retail leadership experience and began her career at Ann Taylor Stores Corporation, where she spent 15 years in various leadership roles. She moved to Kohl’s and then Talbots, which has more than 8,700 employees and operates more than 500 retail stores across the United States. Kindler is a mastermind expert for Babson College’s Women Innovating Now (WIN) Lab, an accelerator for women entrepreneurs. She is also a member of the advisory board of the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University.
- Kimberly Sherman Stamler, a Class B director, is president of Related Beal, an integrated real estate firm focused on Boston and the surrounding region. Sherman Stamler joined Related Companies in 1999 and has experience in a variety of sectors within the real estate industry, including acquisitions, financing, development, leasing, marketing, operations, and sales across all asset classes. She sits on the boards of the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, Habitat for Humanity Greater Boston, A Better City, and the Boston Municipal Research Bureau. She also serves as co-chair of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce’s Regional Real Estate Development Leadership Council. In addition, Sherman Stamler was a member of the Nontraditional Employment for Women Real Estate Developers Council and the Sam Zell and Robert Lurie Real Estate Center at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
- Dr. Lauren A. Smith, a Class B director, is the chief health equity and strategy officer for the CDC Foundation based in Atlanta. Most recently, Smith was co-CEO of FSG, a mission-driven social impact consulting firm based in Boston which provides strategy and evaluation support to foundations, businesses, and nonprofits to achieve equitable social change. Smith brings more than 25 years of experience working at the intersection of the health care, public policy, and public health fields. She has published extensively in peer-reviewed literature on health equity and the implication of social policies on child and family well-being. She has also served on numerous national and state advisory committees that focus on public health and health care. Smith speaks regularly on the topics of strategic philanthropy and collective impact. Her previous leadership roles have included serving as the medical director and interim commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. She was also the national medical director of the Medical Legal Partnership for Children and the medical director of the pediatric inpatient service at Boston Medical Center, where she was on faculty in the Department of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine. Her experience in federal and state government includes roles as a policy analyst in the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and as a W.T. Grant Health Policy Fellow in the office of the Massachusetts Speaker of the House. Smith is actively engaged in civic organizations and is on the board of several nonprofits, as well as the board of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts.
- Roger W. Crandall, a Class C director, is chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual). Crandall has been with MassMutual since 1988, serving as chief investment officer from 2005 to 2010, co-chief operating officer from 2007 to 2010, and CEO since 2010. Crandall is actively involved in civil, academic, and economic development organizations. He serves as a member of the Business Roundtable, the Smithsonian National Board, the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership, the Wharton Leadership Advisory Board for The Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management, the University of Vermont Foundation Leadership Council, and the Lahey Hospital & Medical Center board of trustees.
Federal Advisory Council Representative
- John R. Ciulla is president and chief executive officer of Webster Financial Corporation and Webster Bank, and he is a member of both boards of directors. He serves as the Federal Advisory Council representative for the Federal Reserve’s First District. The council, which consists of one banker from each of the 12 Federal Reserve districts, meets quarterly to discuss business and financial conditions with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington.
Ciulla joined Webster in 2004 as senior vice president for Middle Market Banking and has held several executive management positions with increasing responsibility, including chief credit risk officer from 2008 to 2010. He was promoted to executive vice president and head of Middle Market Banking in 2011, to head of Commercial Banking in 2014, and to president in 2015. Prior to joining Webster, Ciulla was with The Bank of New York, most recently as managing director. He practiced law in New York as an associate with McDermott Will & Emery and Hughes Hubbard & Reed. Ciulla serves on the board of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, and he is also a member of the board of the Business Council of Fairfield County.
Additional information about the structure of the Federal Reserve and Reserve Bank boards of directors may be found here.