Thomas Hoenig is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Prior to joining the Mercatus Center, Mr. Hoenig served as Vice Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from 2012 until 2018. In that capacity, he oversaw FDIC operations and policy related to deposit insurance pricing, bank supervision, and financial stability and bank resolution. He served as Director of NeighborWorks America, which was established by Congress in 1978 to address housing issues nationwide. He also served as a member of the International Association of Deposit Insurers’ board from 2012 to 2017, and as its President and Chairman from October 2015 to October 2017.

Mr. Hoenig was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and a member of the Federal Reserve System’s Federal Open Market Committee from 1991 to 2011. Before being named bank president, he served as an economist and then as a senior officer in banking supervision. As President and Chief Executive Officer, he led the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City during the Great Recession and the banking crisis of 2008 and 2009.

During his time with the Federal Reserve, Mr. Hoenig chaired several key committees including the Conference of Presidents, the Committee on Bank Supervision, Regulation and Legislation, and the Information Technology Oversight Committee. Also, during his tenure Mr. Hoenig organized and hosted the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s Jackson Hole economic symposium for global central bankers. In 2022, author Chris Leonard’s book, “The Lords of Easy Money”, prominently featured a detailed accounting of Mr. Hoenig’s role on the FOMC and at the FDIC during the financial crisis and the years of turmoil in banking that followed that crisis. In 2024, he was awarded the Truman Medal for Economic Policy by the Truman Library Institute.

Mr. Hoenig is a native of Fort Madison, Iowa and received his PhD in economics at Iowa State University.