Mary Daly

Mary C. Daly
Born	5 7, 1968
Birthplace	Clarence, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Economist, central banker
Title	President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
Known for	President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
Education	Ph.D., Syracuse University

Mary C. Daly is an American economist who has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco since October 2018. In this role, she participates in the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which sets monetary policy for the United States. Daly's career at the San Francisco Fed spans more than two decades, during which she rose through the institution's research ranks before being named its leader. Her academic and policy work has focused on labor economics, wage dynamics, and the economic effects of inequality. In recent years, Daly has emerged as a prominent voice within the Federal Reserve System on topics including the impact of artificial intelligence on productivity, the health of the U.S. labor market, and the appropriate path for interest rate policy. Her public commentary has drawn attention for its combination of data-driven analysis and accessible communication aimed at explaining complex monetary policy decisions to a broad audience.

Early Life

Mary Christine Daly was born on July 5, 1968, and grew up in Clarence, New York, a suburb of Buffalo. She has spoken publicly about her upbringing in a working-class household and her early experiences in the labor market. Daly did not follow a traditional academic trajectory; she dropped out of high school and spent time working in a doughnut shop and other service-sector jobs before eventually pursuing higher education. These formative experiences with low-wage work and economic insecurity have been cited by Daly as shaping her professional interest in labor markets, inequality, and economic opportunity.

Education

Daly earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri–Kansas City. She subsequently obtained a master's degree in economics from the University of Illinois Springfield (then Sangamon State University). Daly went on to earn her Ph.D. in economics from Syracuse University, where her doctoral research focused on labor economics and disability. Her academic training in labor market dynamics and applied microeconomics provided the foundation for her subsequent career at the Federal Reserve.

Career

Early Career at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Daly joined the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco in 1996 as an economist in the bank's research department. Over the following two decades, she established herself as a specialist in labor economics, wage dynamics, and the economic consequences of disability and inequality. Her research output during this period included studies on wage rigidity, the measurement of labor market slack, and the effects of economic downturns on different segments of the workforce.

Daly advanced steadily through the research hierarchy at the San Francisco Fed. She held the positions of research advisor and associate director of research before being appointed executive vice president and director of research in 2017. In this capacity, she oversaw the bank's economic research operations and served as a key policy advisor to the bank's president.

Appointment as President and CEO

On October 1, 2018, Daly became the 13th president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She succeeded John C. Williams, who left to become president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Daly was the first person without an Ivy League or equivalent elite university background to lead the San Francisco Fed in the modern era, and her appointment was noted for reflecting a nontraditional career path in central banking. As president, Daly serves on the FOMC, participating in decisions on interest rates and the overall direction of U.S. monetary policy. She serves as a voting member of the FOMC on a rotating basis, in accordance with the Federal Reserve System's structure.

Monetary Policy Positions

Throughout her tenure as president, Daly has articulated positions on monetary policy that reflect a data-dependent approach to interest rate decisions. She has emphasized the importance of achieving both sides of the Federal Reserve's dual mandate: maximum employment and price stability.

During the period of elevated inflation that followed the COVID-19 pandemic, Daly supported the Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate increases aimed at bringing inflation back toward the 2 percent target. As inflationary pressures began to moderate, she became a voice for careful recalibration of policy, advocating for rate adjustments that would avoid unnecessarily weakening the labor market.

In November 2025, Daly publicly stated her support for a rate cut at the Federal Reserve's December meeting, citing concerns about the vulnerability of the labor market. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, she expressed the view that the central bank should lower interest rates to protect against potential deterioration in employment conditions.

By early 2026, Daly's public statements indicated a shift toward viewing monetary policy as appropriately positioned, describing it as being "in a good place." In February 2026, she stated that interest rate policy was well positioned as officials continued to assess evolving economic conditions, including the potential effects of artificial intelligence on productivity and inflation. She further remarked that policy was "in a good place" while the central bank assessed the broader macroeconomic landscape.

Focus on Artificial Intelligence and the Economy

In 2025 and 2026, Daly emerged as one of the most vocal Federal Reserve officials addressing the economic implications of artificial intelligence. Drawing on the San Francisco Fed's proximity to the technology industry and Silicon Valley, she provided detailed observations on how AI was reshaping hiring patterns, productivity, and the broader economy.

In a February 2026 interview with Reuters, Daly stated that the Federal Reserve "must dig deep into the data" to assess whether artificial intelligence was boosting productivity growth in ways that could affect the appropriate path for interest rates. She emphasized that the central bank needed to carefully distinguish between genuine structural improvements in productivity and temporary or sector-specific effects.

In a conversation with Bloomberg News, Daly elaborated on her assessment that there was not yet much indication that artificial intelligence was fundamentally changing the structure of the economy, but that the potential for such change required close monitoring by policymakers.

In a separate analysis reported by Axios, Daly offered insight into how AI was playing out specifically in the San Francisco Bay Area, describing a "transition phase" in which employers were beginning to integrate AI tools into hiring and workforce decisions. Her comments reflected firsthand observations drawn from the San Francisco Fed's engagement with businesses in its district, which includes major technology companies at the forefront of AI development and deployment.

Daly characterized the productivity effects of AI as moving "under the hood," suggesting that while aggregate economic statistics had not yet captured a clear AI-driven productivity surge, underlying changes in business operations and labor utilization were beginning to take shape.

Research Contributions

Prior to her appointment as president, Daly published numerous research papers and contributed to the Federal Reserve's understanding of labor markets and economic measurement. Her work on wage rigidity explored the phenomenon of downward nominal wage stickiness — the observation that employers tend to resist cutting nominal wages even during economic downturns — and its implications for monetary policy. She also contributed to research on how standard unemployment statistics may understate or overstate true labor market slack, work that informed the Federal Reserve's assessment of the economy during and after the Great Recession.

Daly's research on disability and the labor force examined how physical and mental health conditions affect labor force participation, earnings, and economic well-being. This body of work connected her personal background and early career experiences with rigorous empirical analysis.

Leadership Style and Public Communication

As president of the San Francisco Fed, Daly has been noted for her efforts to communicate monetary policy in accessible terms. She has given public speeches, media interviews, and participated in community events aimed at explaining the Federal Reserve's decisions and their implications for ordinary Americans. She has frequently drawn on her own life story — including her experiences in low-wage work — to connect abstract economic concepts to lived experience.

Daly has also emphasized the importance of diversity and inclusion within the Federal Reserve System and in the economics profession more broadly. Under her leadership, the San Francisco Fed has pursued initiatives related to community development, economic equity, and the study of how monetary policy affects different demographic groups.

Personal Life

Daly has spoken publicly about her unconventional path to a career in economics and central banking. She has described her early experiences dropping out of high school and working in service-sector jobs as formative influences on her understanding of the economy from the perspective of workers, particularly those in low-wage and insecure employment. She has cited these experiences as motivating her interest in labor economics and her commitment to ensuring that monetary policy takes into account the conditions faced by all segments of the workforce.

Daly resides in San Francisco, where the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is headquartered. She has maintained a relatively private personal life while serving as a public figure within the Federal Reserve System.

Recognition

Daly's appointment as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco was itself recognized as notable, given her nontraditional educational and professional background. She has been featured in numerous media profiles and interviews that have highlighted her journey from working-class origins to leading one of the twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks. Her public engagement on topics including AI and the economy, labor market conditions, and the Federal Reserve's role in promoting economic stability has garnered attention from financial media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg News, and Axios.

As a leader within the Federal Reserve System, Daly participates in one of the most consequential decision-making bodies in global finance. Her contributions to FOMC deliberations and her public commentary on monetary policy are closely followed by financial markets, economists, and policymakers.

Legacy

As of 2026, Daly continues to serve as president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and her legacy remains in active formation. Her tenure has coincided with an exceptionally challenging period for monetary policy, encompassing the economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a surge in inflation to levels not seen in decades, and the subsequent effort to bring inflation back to target without triggering a severe economic downturn.

Daly's emphasis on the Federal Reserve's dual mandate — and her vocal advocacy for giving equal weight to employment alongside price stability — has positioned her within the broader institutional debate about the appropriate conduct of monetary policy. Her work on the economic implications of artificial intelligence has placed the San Francisco Fed at the center of policy discussions about how technological change may reshape the economic landscape in ways that affect the conduct of central banking.

Her personal story, from high school dropout to Federal Reserve president, has been cited as illustrative of the value of nontraditional career paths in public service and economics. Whether this narrative becomes a lasting element of her institutional legacy will depend in part on the outcomes of the policy decisions in which she participates and the broader trajectory of the issues she has championed.