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FACTBOX: Obama economic panel includes range of experts

Wed May 20, 2009 11:40am EDT

(Reuters) - A panel of experts tapped by President Barack Obama to help shape his response to the economic crisis is led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

Barack Obama  |  Economy

Moving into the spotlight after playing a behind-the-scenes role, the 16-member board meets at the White House on Wednesday in the first of what are expected to be quarterly gatherings.

The group includes Democrats and Republicans from a variety of backgrounds, including business, labor and academia.

The meeting, scheduled for 10:00 a.m., will be open to the media and carried via a live video stream on the White House website.

Austan Goolsbee, a longtime Obama adviser, is the board's staff director and chief economist. Goolsbee is also a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Below is a list of the advisers and their backgrounds.

* PAUL VOLCKER, former Federal Reserve Chairman. Volcker is credited with conquering runaway inflation in the early 1980s through interest-rate increases that also led to a recession. He was named to the Fed in 1979 by former President Jimmy Carter and served throughout much of the Reagan administration until he was replaced by Alan Greenspan in 1987.

Volcker, a Democrat, was a key adviser to Obama during his presidential campaign. Obama referred to him in a recent New York Times magazine interview as "somebody who has enormous influence" over his thinking.

* WILLIAM DONALDSON, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He served in that role in the Bush administration from 2003 to 2005.

* ROGER FERGUSON, president and chief executive of TIAA-CREF and a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

* ROBERT WOLF, chairman and chief executive of UBS Group Americas.

* DAVID SWENSEN, chief investment officer at Yale University.

* MARK GALLOGLY, founder and managing partner of the private equity firm Centerbridge Partners L.P.

* PENNY PRTIZKER, chairman and founder of Pritzker Realty Group. Pritzker was the national finance chairwoman of Obama's presidential campaign.

* JOHN DOERR, a partner at venture-capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers.

* JIM OWENS, chairman and chief executive of Caterpillar Inc.

* MONICA LOZANO, publisher and chief executive of the Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion.

* CHARLES PHILLIPS, president of Oracle Corp.

* ANNA BURGER, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union.

* RICHARD TRUMKA, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO labor organization.

* LAURA D'ANDREA TYSON, dean of the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley. Tyson was a White House economic adviser to former President Bill Clinton and advised Obama during his presidential campaign.

* MARTIN FELDSTEIN, a Harvard University economics professor and former top economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan.

* JEFFREY IMMELT, chief executive of General Electric.

(Reporting by Caren Bohan; editing by Todd Eastham)



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