He Hello everybody welcome back to another episode of the male perspective I am your host Lana Reed and today is another amazing day I get to sit down with another one of these wonderful men of five Beta Sigma fraternity Incorporated today I have with me brother Ronald Johnson Esquire he is currently the
Senior VP um and general counselor and chief risk officer at the federal res Reserve Bank of Cleveland and I’m so looking forward to spending some time with him and uh being inquisitive about the work that he is doing but first and foremost sir as I always do I take a
Quick moment to pause and say thank you to you for making time for me today time is a gift than you yeah time is a gift once we give we can’t get it back so I truly appreciate you setting aside this time uh to chat with me and with that
Sir welcome welcome to the show well I appreciate it it’s a pleasure to uh chat with you miss Reed and I love the platform that you that you have and that you build and hopefully I’m able to uh participate and offer some uh offer some Pearls of Wisdom I’m sure you will your
Your place of employment is very intriguing to US general population people so um well as before I get going and prying into your professional career and such let me first ask how long have you been been a sigma man and where did you pledge so I uh I crossed over in the
Spring of 1989 and I pledged that the beta new chapter at Cleveland State University in Cleveland Ohio okay so when you um enrolled in Cleveland was law your desire.com well um I always wanted to be a lawyer um my my major was finance and uh you
Know I figured at some point in time I would go into banking which is what I did okay uh and eventually I was able to enroll in law school and become a lawyer for a bank uh so that’s pretty much my career most of my career has been as a
Lawyer uh working in the financial services industry okay all right well we’re going to get into that I I got some questions for you now my my first curious question is and I’m pretty sure you know there’s a lot of other folks out there like me but
You work for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and you know most of us really don’t understand what this place is and what it does so can you give us the baby step introduction to uh all that goes on there AB absolutely so um there’s probably I think three major functions
Or three major roles that the Federal Reserve Bank plays most people hear about the Federal Reserve in terms of monetary policy um and uh working with the Board of Governors um there’s 12 Federal Reserve Districts and several of those uh Federal Reserve Bank presidents sit on the Federal Open Market Committee
And that committee uh sets the the interest rates um uh that are used to uh that form the really the basis of of most Consumer loans mortgages credit cards um Etc and so um so when a lot of people think of the Federal Reserve they’re thinking about the FED in terms
Of monetary policy and that’s one of the major uh major functions um the the goal the Federal Reserve has has two major mandates one is to um promote price stability within our economy and so the monetary policy is one mechanism uh through which the FED uh does that and
Then also um uh working with the government to determine whether or not the print money um in order to address uh inflation and that that’s where the price stability comes into into play um the other uh mandate for the F Reserve is to promote maximum employment and so
Uh again a lot of the policy work that the federal rer does is for those particular two uh two mandates but some other uh pillars that the FED does is um it also regulates financial institutions okay um so there’s a supervision and regulation function um and that is a
Very important uh function because uh they ensure that our financial system and the the the banks that support the financial system are sound and operate in a safe and sound manner uh and then the third major function of the FED is to provide payment services for the federal government so all the payments
Uh that the government receives and makes um are generally processed through the Federal Reserve Bank so it can be uh you know collecting tax payments uh you know IRS or if people are are paying for licenses uh from the the you know Wildlife Bureau uh or any type of
Government payments and the Federal Reserve has the payment mechanism in order to facilitate those payments on behalf of the federal government so that’s the you know the high level um that the FED does in general um and then all the reserve banks um also have uh community outreach functions so even in
Cleveland um the the the Federal Reserve has of Community Affairs department where they actually work with local communities to educate the public particularly young people uh about uh uh Financial uh Wellness uh about financial mo mobility um they teach people about you know the money system what the Federal
Reserve Bank does so that our public is more educated about money and finance um and then they also uh work with community leaders and Industry experts to build and and um study policies around payments cryptocurrencies just a lot of things to help facilitate economics within our our country so
There’s a lot that the Federal Reserve Bank does and to your point a lot of people don’t really know about it but I would always encourage people to visit the the Federal Reserve Bank websites um there’s all kinds of information that’s out there uh for people who study
Economics for example um there are all kinds of data economic data that researchers and students um Can leverage to uh assist in their economic studies uh and then there’s just a lot of general information for the to the public around money and Finance in banking awesome awesome okay thank you
For that now let me ask you this is the health of the Federal Reserve Bank in um the United States does that parlay it itself into other global banking um systems yep so um so the Federal Reserve is is the central banking system for the United States and you know I think just
About every country um if not most of them most all the countries have a central bank uh a central bank so the Federal Reserve and the Board of Governors um they actually collaborate and in partner with other central banks uh just to share perspective share information uh in
Order to help support our world economy okay so so for so for those people who pay attention when you are looking at monetary policy decisions here in the United States some of those same people are also looking at you know monetary policy decisions that are made in Europe
Or in UK or in Africa because they all have an impact on uh local economy and so uh so there’s there a lot of collaboration among the central banks just to ensure that they’re um that they’re helping to manage uh economic goals and objectives of each country so
Our inflation here would have an impact on inflation say in South Africa or something so it’s there is there’s interconnect interconnectedness um when it comes to economics um so what happens here in the US does have an impact uh overseas and vice versa and that’s why it’s really important for uh
The really all the countries through the central banks and and other mechanisms to really stay connected uh because there is an impact so sometimes uh decisions that are made in the UK will have an impact on you know the the stock market for example here in the US and
Vice versa because we truly operate in a global economy gotta yeah Al I I would assume most folks well the regular average citizen doesn’t understand that so thanks for putting that in perspective now let me ask about you um what is your role and responsibility within the Federal Reserve Bank so so i
U i really serve two um two major responsibilities so as the The General Counsel I’m the the chief legal officer for the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland um which means that um you know I lead the the lawyers that really support all the work of the Federal
Reserve um so whether it’s you know issues relating to contracts or employment issues um or supporting the policy work um but the you know the legal team uh provides the legal resources and the legal support for those functions and then the other hat that I wear is um the chief risk officer
And so we have a separate group of individuals that provide over risk management oversight for our particular Bank um and so that means making sure that we have a good line of sight on various risks of the day that we have to manage so things would you know things
Examples would be um making sure that um our computer systems are safe and secure making sure that our facilities are safe and secure um you know making sure that people are following our policies and procedures and and that we’re maintaining confidential information all of those things pose different types of
Risk that we uh we we actually monitor and uh and then work with our partners within the bank to ensure that those things are handled appropriately okay so yeah you you’re hearing more and more often about these cyber attacks and take takeovers with certain um things so the Federal Reserve
Bank is is an an operation that we would not want stuff like that to happen to so AB absolutely and the Federal Reserve I mean every single organization on the face of the planet faces cyber threats um libraries universities Banks you know government agencies Airlines so all all
Know most organizations if not all uh have some form of risk management and so we we we do as well okay awesome now you mentioned in the beginning that you know you you went to um college for uh to become a lawyer and we see that’s the
Design where you’re working now but what was the pathway for you to finally get to where we see you now yeah so um and and thanks for that particular question because um you know it’s it’s every everyone’s path is is different um we all have you know experienced different
Things and so um you know I’ll just share that uh it took me seven years to get my undergraduate degree um because I had to figure out a way to to navigate through school and get through school um and um I I attended Cleveland State University uh in Cleveland Ohio um but
If aest that wasn’t the school that I wanted to attend uh when I graduated high school I wanted to go someplace and I just didn’t have the opportunity uh to do that and so um so for me the pathway was uh figuring out ultimately where what I wanted to do but understanding
That the pathway wasn’t going to be linear it was going to be some zigs and zags um it was going to take a little bit of time I might have to pause or pivot um before I went to law school I actually got an
MBA um and it wasn’t my plan to get an MBA but part of the way I was able to uh achieve my higher education was I took advantage of tuition reimbursement programs yeah uh for the the companies that I work for because I actually worked full-time and went to school
Part-time that’s how I completed my undergraduate degree that’s how I completed MBA and then that’s also how I completed my law degree um and so I got an MBA because I knew I needed graduate education I wanted to go to law school but the my employer at the time didn’t
Offer to wish reimbursement for law school so so they offered it instead for the MBA so that’s what I did okay um ultimately I changed employers and then I was able to um to get not only get a new job with a great experience but was
Also able to um get some assistance uh for to to fund law school education and so that was really the pathway for me to achieve uh achieve my goal and you know but fully grace of God I mean you know I was in law school and approaching
Graduation and I was working in a job that doesn’t didn’t require a law degree wondering if I was going to actually become a lawyer and uh and I ultimately did it was an opportunity that came up uh in that in that company’s uh Law Department where I was able to to move
In and uh begin my legal career so uh so that that’s the pathway awesome so has your um legal career in finance have they always been intertwined or so I would say that law was probably more like a second career for me um so I had actually been in industry for about
Uh about 15 years um before I moved into uh became a lawyer uh went to law school so I was I would call say a non-traditional student I didn’t go to law school right after college um I had some work experience um and uh uh and I
Think and it I think that Ser served me well okay great now let me ask you um moving forward because we have high expectations and aspirations for Mr Johnson here um there’s this gentleman in the world the Federal Reserve uh banking world called Mr Powell right and
He is if I’m understanding the title correct chairman of the board is that his correct title yes he’s the chair of the Board of Governors Governors so uh for us who are advocating for Mr Johnson what is the pathway for an individual to one day be in his
Position wow um that’s that’s a good question um you know uh chairman po uh is a very well-respected uh Economist uh with a a long history uh uh studying e economics and Banking and finance uh in particular and so um I think the pathway for someone to to be
In that type of role is really to have a strong connection to uh the Federal Reserve System and to uh monetary policy it is a very cerebral um role there are a lot of smart people um PhD economists that study Theory um they run models they
Collect a lot of data and um and there’s a lot of research uh that accompanies uh the mon monetary policy decisions and so um in my opinion and you know I just and I’ll just say that you know on this podcast anything that I say is just my
Opinion uh only you know not the opinion of of my employer but in my opinion um uh the people that serve uh at the board really have to understand data and be able to interpret data make connections um but use also some common sense um but they have to be really
Really connected to the community so one of the things that all of the Federal Reserve Banks do is they perform a lot of research they meet with Business Leaders in their districts to understand what economic issues those companies are dealing with because all of that informs their policy thinking so they’ll talk
Talk to large B large corporations small business hospitals universities because the idea is to get as much data as possible so they can understand how the monetary policy decisions they’re making are affecting our businesses and affecting our communities so people that have the ability to do that kind of work
And and put those things in perspective I think those are some of the important skill sets um and then the other uh important thing is um being able to communicate with um with legislators um uh and decision makers that have Divergent um missions and goals and objectives the Federal Reserve is
Independent from politics it’s independent from government so the decisions that the FED Reserve make uh the FED makes are not uh driven by partisan politics but as we all know there’s partisan politics everywhere and people have opinions about things and um even in politics uh certain politicians may make comments or observations about
The work of the Federal Reserve and and so uh being able to remain steadfast in the FED Mission and not be swayed by politics but at the same time getting that important feedback that’s that’s a skill that’s not easy you know that’s not easy work um but it really is
Important in my opinion for um for people like J J pal to be able to do that effectively and I think he does do that effectively okay so the people that sit on the board are is it a job posting somewhere or are they is it are they
Elected to this position how how do how does that happen yeah so there’s there’s actually um a legal framework for uh determining uh who who you know gets appointed um as a governor oh there appointed oh okay yeah so there there there are appointment appointed positions okay um and there’s a there’s
A whole legal framework out there um that talks about it but the um uh the the members of the board um obviously play a you know substantial role um in um you know in establishing what the monetary policy is and then also um overseeing the Federal Open Market Committee committee which is the
Committee that assessed the interest rates here in the United States okay now I want to Circle back because you mentioned that part of the responsibilities of of the Federal Reserve Bank is is community outreach or Community efforts and impact um how would we see and I know you mentioned um economic
Education what what areas or what specific ways in which would we see you in the Cleveland area running programs is it something that people can enroll in and partake in how does that play out y so there’s a couple different things that our Community Affairs uh functions
Do so first of all in in Cleveland we’re part of the fourth Federal Reserve District so there’s 12 districts and um the fourth district encompasses um Ohio um all of Ohio parts of West Virginia parts of Kentucky um parts of of Indiana and so we actually have uh Cleveland is the main
Office and we have a branch in Cincinnati and we have a branch in Pittsburgh and then we also have um d uh people that serve on our our director Board of Directors for both for all all three of those locations and so um our Community Affairs team what they do is they will
Uh work with different communities or Community or organizations in different cities to run um maybe a financial Education Program for Young People um and so the organizations can certainly contact us if for to to explore different Partnerships um and so that may it may involve sending uh employees to a
Program to meet with constituents um or or program constituents to to talk about financial education it can also mean that we host people to come into our locations and we where we can put on seminars um about you know Financial topics or educational topics um maybe
Even um uh at some point in time uh we used to uh have tours Public tours uh we had shut that down during the pandemic but in the coming months I think we’re going to look to to restart some of those things but it’s the whole point is
Really to to help demystify the FED um uh to the to the general public um and then some of the Partnerships are also um uh focused on different constituent groups so um uh e the youth I think I mentioned this before like high school students and Junior High School students
But then sometimes we want to Target um people that have an interest in uh economics as a career um and so you know we we can offer you know have Partnerships that that center around some of those things so the bottom line is that there’s a lot
Of flexibility in terms of the types of programming and the types of Partnerships um that uh we engage in and um and there’s contact information on our website uh so that you know people can reach out to us uh to find out what those opportunities are okay great now
Kind of listening to your some of your personal sto story and listening to the work that you’re doing I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that it’s not often that we see black men moving in the spaces that you move in um if you had to give some advice or
Some poins or some tips to you know a young black male who wants to pursue this journey navigate these spaces uh what would you say to them yeah so um this and this is really really important to me uh Miss Reed so when when I was you know young and dumb
Um I’m in college I’m working I’m trying to figure out you know how to you know pay tuition and and get through school I was very fortunate to um to have a male Mentor um who was a senior professional um in his industry um he was not a sigma by the
Way um uh he was a Kappa but I never never held out against him um but what what he did for me was he really taught me um really two important things one is um because he was a African-American man um and he worked in and he was probably
I think he was the only or the this most senior uh black officer in his organization at the time um and his you his he had his own interesting story um his career but he he he taught me that people are always paying attention to
You even if you never think that you do that that they are and and he actually helped me get my first um internship uh summer uh internship uh at the company that where he worked and then um and I was able to Parlay that into a permanent position
But he told me he said you know he’s helping me get this job he saido not embarrass me um because he used his influence uh in a way that U was helpful to me um and he said people are always paying attention and so um and what I’m
Going to say may sound old school but it was important to me it works it works right um even though business casual was uh what people uh War I we a suit every day great and he said he told me we’re a suit every day because it’s it’s one way
To for you to stand out without saying a word people are going to pay look at you and like wondering why who is this guy walking around here in the suit and I was and I you know I was in a you know entry level position so I wasn’t in a
Influential position um but he was right people did pay attention um and then the second thing that he taught me was he actually connected me to my first uh outside Community organization he was on the board of a nonprofit and they needed some volunteers to kind of do
Some work on a particular project and he told me you’re going to do this and I was like well I don’t know if I have interest or time and he said no this is what you’re going to do and here’s why and the why was you need to start
Building a profile and for many of us um especially for young young people it’s it’s sometimes it’s difficult to build a profile within the company because building a profile within the company means you have to be um selected to participate on a project or given an opportunity and sometimes they’re just
Not available or they’re ear marked with someone else but if you do community work and you start working with nonprofit organizations you can still build leadership skills conflict management skills strategic management skills you can still learn how to read profit and loss statements and um and you can still build those skills and
Build that profile and they work actually in Tandem and so um that was something that uh that my mentor taught me so um so my advice to people would be to try to find uh those mentors and Advocates um and it’s easier said than done and there are many companies that
Have you know mentoring programs where they kind of match people up together and and those are okay but the best relationships are the ones that are Dynamic um and those are those are harder to come by but it really really is important uh for people to find
Them but the most important thing from from that is that young people we have to learn to listen and we have to learn to receive and if I think about now some you know older and telling me what I’m going to do and how I’m going to spend my free
Time like that doesn’t sound good right A lot of people would be like I’m not I’m not going to do what this man said but I did because I knew at the end of the day he was guiding me and he was giving me Insight uh and I
And fortunately I was open to it and so and it it really benefited me and look at you now W I’m still I’m still a work in progress but uh but I appreciate that look at your but you know and let me ask you this one last question um before I
Ask you my random question uh there’s a lot of you know Discord sometimes today with the younger generation and and folks in our age bracket about higher education you know a lot of the younger folks are saying it’s not worth it or whatever uh I I beg to differ I
Understand that college is not for everybody but if you had to share the the benefits and the impact of pursuing higher education what would you say to the young folks well I I happen to believe that higher education is critically important and I and I get it
Um when I think about the cost of of higher education now compared to you know decades ago it’s crazy and I I’ve got college kids so I I know what the what the price tag looks like um for for higher education but I think sometimes when from my my opinion when people look
At the cost of Education what they’re really talking about or really looking at is what’s the the cost per credit hour for the the class classroom and you know I agree yeah it’s high it it’s it’s expensive and there’s really no good reason for it uh in my opinion but but
College is more than just going to class so um college is about you know it’s the it’s when you’re transitioning from being a teenager and it’s an important transition to adulthood where in most cases you’re on your own and you’re living and dying by the decisions that
You make whether it’s getting up and going to class at 8:00 or even setting your class schedule right um it’s um learning how to advocate for yourself so when you get that grade that you thought you deserved that you didn’t you didn’t you know you didn’t get the grade you
Thought you deserve and you have to make a decision on how you’re going to approach the professor you know am I going to Prof approach the professor that’s the first decision and then secondly how do I do that in a constructive way um like those are
Skills that you learn and you develop uh and they they they stay with you and you apply those skills uh post college and and for the rest of your life when you’re involved in organizations and I mean not just a a M but you’re actually involved you learn
To meet people you learn to talk to people that you wouldn’t otherwise talk to you learned how to um be transparent and you learned how to listen um you learn give and take you learned how to De develop and form meaningful relationships for me um when I joined 5
Sigma eventually I became the president of the chapter and it was really the first time that I got to like understand what leadership was was like and how do you develop leadership skills not just working with my frat brothers but working with the school administration to make sure that our chapter met all
Its requirements and if there were disputes that we had to resolve you know conflicts that we had to resolve you know I learned all all all of that stuff in college um where else would I have learned that um if if I didn’t go to college maybe maybe I would have but but
That’s where the college experience I think is more than just going to class and so I definitely would encourage people to go to college yes it’s expensive it’s not easy um and I understand why people would uh question the value but those are the the the
Things that I think you know that I I highlight for people when they when they bring up that argument yeah we have learned so many life skills that parlay you know so long after the journey you know you get that that impactful lessons in college so I
And like you said it is expensive but you just can’t beat the life lessons well sir let me let me ask you my random question and then um we will wrap it up I usually ask how people connect with you but we’ll just direct them to the website so maybe they
Can see one of the community events in uh so let’s see here if your waiter or waitress was to be a total jerk do you still leave a tip good question um so the short answer is yes okay um I I I I do so I generally
Tip well um especially for people who give great service um but you know I certainly wouldn’t tip as well for the the the service person who uh was a complete jerk um but you know at the end of the day uh especially in this particular country country I mean people live live
You know servers live off the tips and so um that person could have been having a bad day yeah um they could have had you know something a major life event uh that they were kind of struggling with and so um you know I’d leave a tip I
Might leave a note with the tip yeah uh you know a note to say disappointed in the attitude you know wish hope all is well or yeah you know uh just I try an encouraging word but I would still live live it to because there is an economic
Reason for why they’re they’re doing that particular job great I like that you know we’re all having human experiences so you know like you said you never know uh what’s going on and what might be it might not just be that they give bad customer service so for
Never fortunately I’ve never had that experience so in your in your 25 years you’ve never had bad service I’ve never had someone that was a complete jerk I’ve had bad service where I felt someone was in inattentive but never had anyone that was being just rude rude and
Disrespectful okay gota Goa so if we are ever in the Cleveland area I think I heard you mention that people can come and possibly have tours of the facility is is that available well yes so um so I would just direct uh people to uh the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland
Website um where they can locate tour information I you know it was something that the FED we did uh pre pandemic um and I think now that we’re a couple years outside the pandemic I think we’re looking to re reconstitute that um but uh I’m not sure if it’s quite quite
Available just yet but I think maybe by the summertime but there’s a lot of a lot of information on the website that people can can explore okay I’ll make sure to put the link in that well sir I thank you so much for giving us the
Crash course you know um I think some people think that we can roll up to the Federal Reserve Bank and go through the drive-thru and get $40 but we can’t do that can we no we cannot I wish that was the case okay okay but anyways so you know
I’m picturing uh my younger day uh with the the cartoons of what Daffy Duck and you know he’s like mine mine mine and all the currency and stuff like that so guess that’s you know just my little childish dreams but I thank you so much for your time and your lessons
Especially you know imparting some wisdom to you know the younger generation as it pertains to uh pursuing your path your professional path and college education I just I thank you for your time and it’s just so inspirational to see your journey because I I am just
Picturing that we don’t get to see too many of our faces and the spaces that you travel so it’s just nice to know that we have some folks out there so just thank you for being representation and an example and for being you well I yeah I I appreciate you I love I
Appreciate your platform um I’ll just give a quick shout out to Ultimate connections for kind of bringing us together um I like that I had a chance to uh to see watch some of the other podcasts that you’ve done and um I I’m pretty sure I’m a follower now of your
Podcast so uh I like what you’re doing and I appreciate the exposure that you’re providing uh the public and and I appreciate being part of it so thank you thank you so much that is all for this week’s episode of the male perspective I’m your host n re and I will see
Everybody next Time
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