On August 2, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s (Kansas City Fed) board of directors announced that Jeffrey R. Schmid, president and CEO of the SW Graduate School of Banking Foundation at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business, has been appointed president and CEO of the Kansas City Fed, effective August 21. Schmid has more than 40 years of banking and regulatory experience, including positions at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and in leading the establishment of Mutual of Omaha Bank, for which he served as chairman and CEO. He is a native of Nebraska.
Schmid succeeds Esther L. George, who retired from the bank on January 31 as required by mandatory Federal Reserve retirement rules for presidents.
“Jeff’s perspective as a native Nebraskan, his broad experience in banking and his deep roots in our region will be an incredible asset to the Federal Reserve, both as a leader of the organization and in his role as a monetary policymaker,” says María Griego-Raby, president and principal of Contract Associates in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who, as deputy chair of the bank’s board of directors, led the search committee.
Schmid began his career in 1981 as a field examiner based in the FDIC’s Kansas City, Missouri, office. In 1989, he was named president of American National Bank in Omaha, Nebraska, where he served until 2007 as the community bank grew from $500 million to $1.5 billion in assets. From 2007 to 2019, Schmid served as the chairman and CEO of Mutual of Omaha Bank, leading the formation of the institution, which grew to a workforce of nearly 2,000. After the bank was sold to CIT group in 2019, he became CEO of family-owned Susser Bank in Dallas.
Schmid then joined the SW Graduate School of Banking Foundation at SMU as its president and CEO in 2021. The foundation provides bank management programs, education and training for thousands of financial services professionals and government regulators, as well as education programs for commercial bank directors.
Schmid holds a BSBA degree from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and is a graduate of the SW Graduate School of Banking. He serves on the boards of Operation HOPE in Atlanta, Georgia, and Avenue Scholars in Omaha and sits on the advisory board of the Cox School of Business at SMU.
“On behalf of the board of directors, I congratulate Jeff and welcome him to the Kansas City Fed,” says Patrick A. “Duke” Dujakovich, president of the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO and chair of the Kansas City Fed’s board of directors. “We are confident he will provide the bank and 10th district with strong leadership in the tradition of his predecessors. I thank María for her leadership and the members of the search committee for their work during this process.”
Schmid will complete the remainder of George’s five-year term as president, which began on March 1, 2021, and ends on February 28, 2026. At that time, he will be considered for reappointment under a process established by the board of governors. As president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Schmid will rotate with other regional Reserve bank presidents as a voting member on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which has the authority over U.S. monetary policy. He will participate in FOMC meetings upon his start date and will be a voting member of the committee in 2025.
As the regional headquarters of the nation’s central bank, the Kansas City Fed and its branch offices in Denver, Oklahoma City and Omaha serve the seven states of the 10th district: Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming, northern New Mexico and western Missouri.
