October 17, 2006

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Announces New Economic Advisory Council Members

San Francisco, October 17, 2006 – John P. Connolly, national president of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, AFL-CIO (AFTRA), and Vivek Paul, a partner at Texas Pacific Group (TPG), have joined the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's Economic Advisory Council for three-year terms, to conclude in 2009.

Economic Advisory Council members provide information on current and pending developments in the regional and national economy. In their new roles, Mr. Connolly and Mr. Paul will represent their industries by providing observations and opinions to members of the board of directors and management of the San Francisco Fed on the present state of the economy, and the developments of their respective industries.

John P. Connolly Larger image

John P. Connolly was first elected AFTRA national president in 2001. The 70,000-member union represents actors, newscasters, announcers, singers, dancers, comedians, and other professionals who work across the media industry in television, radio, sound recording, commercials and new media. He served for five years on the National Board of the Screen Actors Guild and on national committees for the Actors Equity Association, the union of professional theatre performers. Mr. Connolly serves on the AFL-CIO General Board and as vice president of the 840,000-member Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. He is also a trustee of the $2-billion AFTRA Health & Retirement Funds. Mr. Connolly studied history at LaSalle University and was awarded a fellowship and a master’s of fine arts from Temple University’s School of Communications and Theater. June 2006 marked Mr. Connolly’s 35th anniversary as a professional actor on stage, screen, television, radio, commercials and sound recordings.

Vivek Paul

Vivek Paul is a partner at Texas Pacific Group where he focuses on consumer information technology and life sciences sectors. Prior to 2005, he was vice chairman of Wipro and CEO of its global information technology, product engineering, and business process services segments, a position he had held since 1999. Mr. Paul was declared among the best managers in the world by BusinessWeek in 2003, among the top global business influentials by Time magazine in 2004 and among the top 30 most respected global CEOs by Barron's in 2005. Prior to this role, Mr. Paul was at GE for 10 years, where he ran GE's Global Computerized Tomography business from 1995 to 1999, reporting directly to the current Chairman of GE. Mr. Paul also served as president and CEO of GE's medical equipment joint venture in India. Mr. Paul received a bachelor of engineering degree from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India and an MBA from the University of Massachusetts.

The balance of the San Francisco Fed’s Twelfth District Economic Advisory Council includes: Roberto E. Barragan, Valley Economic Development Center, Inc.; Stephen M. Brophy, Page Land & Cattle Company; Grace Evans Cherashore, Evans Hotels; Thomas E. Cleveland, Access Business Finance; Manuel Cunha, Jr., Nisei Farmers League; John H. Gleason, ComPlan Advisors LLC; Cathy Luke, Loyalty Enterprises, Ltd.; and Roderick C. Wendt, JELD-WEN, Inc.

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, with branch offices in Los Angeles, Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Portland, and a cash processing office in Phoenix, provides wholesale banking services to financial institutions throughout the nine western states. As the nation's central bank, the Federal Reserve System formulates monetary policy, serves as a bank regulator, administers consumer protection laws, and is fiscal agent for the U.S. government.

# # #