Swiss National Bank (SNB) Governing Board

Thomas J. Jordan was born in Bienne, Switzerland in 1963. After graduating from an academic secondary school (Wirtschaftsgymnasium) in Bienne, he studied economics and business studies at the University of Berne. He completed his degree in 1989 and his doctorate in 1993. Following a three-year post-doctoral research position at the Department of Economics at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, where he wrote his post-doctoral thesis (Habilitation), the University of Berne appointed him lecturer (Privatdozent) in 1998, and honorary professor in 2003. He lectures there in monetary theory and policy. Between 2002 and 2007, he held a further lectureship at the University of Zurich, teaching monetary policy.

In 1997, Thomas J. Jordan joined the Swiss National Bank (SNB) in Zurich as an Economic Advisor in Department I. Two years later, he was appointed Assistant Director of the Economic Studies unit, and in 2002 he became Head of the Research unit. At the beginning of 2004 he was promoted to Director. With effect from mid-2004, the Swiss Federal Council appointed him an Alternate Member of the Governing Board. In this function, he headed the Financial Markets area of Division III (Money Market and Foreign Exchange, Asset Management, Risk Management and Financial Market Analysis). With effect from 1 May 2007, the Federal Council appointed him Member of the Governing Board and Head of Department III (Financial Markets, Banking Operations and Information Technology). With effect from the beginning of January 2010, the Federal Council elected him Vice-Chairman of the Governing Board and Head of Department II (Financial Stability, Cash, Finance and Risk) in Berne.

Thomas J. Jordan is Chairman of the Board of Directors of StabFund, the stabilisation fund, and Chairman of the G10 Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group (CBCDG). He represents Switzerland in the OECD’s Working Party No. 3 (WP3) and in the Bank for International Settlement’s Committee on the Global Financial System. He is a member of the Bellagio Group and of the ‘Ausschuss für Geldtheorie und Geldpolitik des Vereins für Socialpolitik’ (committee for monetary theory and policy of the ‘Association for Social Policy’ based in Frankfurt, Germany). He is Chairman of the SNB’s Study Center Gerzensee Foundation and Chairman of the International Center for Monetary and Banking Studies (ICMB) in Geneva. He has published numerous articles on monetary theory and policy in leading international journals.

Thomas J. Jordan is married with two sons.