Kevin Warsh's Title Reverts to 'Chairman,' Highlighting Evolving Language

It's officially "Chairman" Kevin Warsh, not "chair."

The Federal Reserve website now lists Warsh as "chairman," not "chair," reversing the past 12 years when his predecessors Janet Yellen and Jerome Powell both chose to be called "chair."

Before Yellen, the term "chairman" was used exclusively.

No law or regulation governs what a chair is called, leaving it up to personal preference. The Federal Reserve Act references "chairman" of the Board of Governors and "vice chairman." It even names "vice chairman of supervision," a position not created until the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

The Fed is a body created by Congress, and in 2021, under the leadership of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the House adopted gender neutral language for its official proceedings. It changed "chairman" to "chair," "seamen" to "seafarers," and gender-specific language such as "daughter" and "sister" to "child" and "sibling."

The current House adopted that same gender-neutral language in its rules package. But Republicans have been critical of such changes and the broader diversity, equity and inclusion movement. On House individual and committee websites, which are not governed by the House rules, the word "chairman" looks to be used almost exclusively. The same is true for the Senate. So Chairman Warsh will testify before Chairman Tim Scott in the Senate and Chairman French Hill in the House when he does his semi-annual testimony.

A 2024 analysis by Bloomberg found that 185 of the S&P 500 companies used gender-neutral language, triple what it had been just four years earlier. But the biggest banks, including JPMorgan Chase , Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley used "chairmen." At Citigroup , Jane Fraser is "chair," but so was her predecessor, John C. Dugan.

Alicia Syrett, founder of Chairs & Leads, a network of chairs and directors, and its prior group, Madam Chair, didn't think much of the change.

"I personally would not read too much into Chairman Warsh's title,'' she said. "I think it's his personal decision to choose between "chair" or "chairman" based on his preference just as much as a female in the role could decide to use "chairwoman" instead of "chair" based on her preference."