On January 26, 2009, Timothy F. Geithner was sworn in as the 75th Secretary of the United States Department of the Treasury in a ceremony attended by President Barack H. Obama, and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Geithner was born on August 18, 1961 in New York. He traveled widely with his family and has lived in a variety of places, including East Africa, India, China, and Japan. He attended high school at the International School of Bangkok. Geithner graduated from Dartmouth College with a bachelor’s degree in government and Asian studies in 1983. He worked briefly as an event photographer in college. He graduated from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies with a master’s in International Economics and East Asian Studies in 1985. That same year, he married his Dartmouth classmate Carole Sonnenfeld.
Before his nomination to the Treasury, Secretary Geithner served as the ninth president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he began on November 17, 2003. In that capacity, he served as the vice chairman and a permanent member of the Federal Open Market Committee, the group responsible for formulating the nation’s monetary policy.
Secretary Geithner first joined the Department of Treasury in 1988 and worked in three administrations for five Secretaries of the Treasury in a variety of positions. He served as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs from 1999 to 2001 under Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers.
He was director of the Policy Development and Review Department at the International Monetary Fund from 2001 until 2003. Earlier in his career, Secretary Geithner worked for Kissinger Associates, Inc.
He and his wife, Carole Sonnenfeld Geithner, have two children — a son and daughter. Geithner fly-fishes, surfs, plays tennis, and snowboards.
Sources: treasury.gov, time.com
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