Deborah Leonard

About

As director of the Federal Reserve System’s Credit Risk Management Support Office, Deborah Leonard is responsible for fostering a coordinated enterprise strategy and approach to business delivery across the twelve Reserve Banks in their activities to provide liquidity through discount window lending and intraday credit. She also oversees shared collateral data, valuation, and technology support services for the business line. Additionally, she serves as a member of the Chicago Fed’s Executive Committee.

Prior to her current role, Leonard was head of the New York Fed’s Chicago office, where she was an advisor to the Manager of the System Open Market Account and oversaw the Open Market Trading Desk’s split-site resiliency strategy for critical trading and financial market monitoring activities.

Leonard began her Federal Reserve career in 1998 as a trader-analyst in the New York Fed’s Markets Group. Since then, her work has encompassed numerous operational, analytical, advisory, and leadership positions related to the design and implementation of monetary and foreign exchange policy, portfolio management, financial market monitoring, and banking services. Over the course of her career, she has led or contributed to the deployment and management of numerous operations and liquidity and credit facilities to support market functioning in response to financial crises. She also completed a secondment to the Monetary Affairs Division of the Board of Governors.

Leonard holds a master’s degree in international economics and public policy from the Johns Hopkins University’s School for Advanced International Studies and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Duke University.