AFL-CIO leader chosen to be N.Y. Fed chairman

By Michael McKee
Bloomberg News

Denis Hughes, president of the New York State AFL- CIO, has been designated as chairman of the New York Federal Reserve Bank's board of directors for the remainder of 2009, bank spokesman Calvin Mitchell said in a statement.

Hughes, 59, has served as acting chairman since May, when Stephen Friedman resigned from the position to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest over his ties to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Friedman, a director on Goldman Sachs' board and a former chairman of the investment bank, purchased shares in Goldman Sachs while serving as chairman of the New York Fed. The district bank oversees Goldman Sachs.

Friedman, chairman of Stone Point Capital LLC, had received a waiver to continue serving on the Fed board after Goldman Sachs became a bank-holding company last September after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Hughes joined the New York Fed board in January 2004.

Lee Bollinger, the president of Columbia University, was designated as vice chairman. Bollinger, 63, became a director in January 2007. He has been reappointed to a new three-year term that begins Jan. 1.

The New York Fed is one of 12 regional Fed banks that, along with the Board of Governors, make up the Federal Reserve system.