U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh is sworn into office during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Washington, DC.
Graham Sloan | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Officially, it’s Kevin Warsh, not “Chairman” but “Chairman.”
The Fed’s website now lists Warsh as “Chairman” rather than “Chairman,” reversing the past 12 years when his predecessors, Janet Yellen and Jerome Powell, both chose to be called “Chair.”
Before Yellen, the term “chairman” was used exclusively.
There are no laws or regulations regarding what chairs are called, and it is left up to personal preference. The Federal Reserve Act refers to the “chair” and “vice chair” of the Board of Governors. It also names “Vice Chairman for Oversight,” a position that wasn’t created until the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.
The Federal Reserve is an agency created by Congress, and in 2021, under the leadership of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the House adopted gender-neutral language in its official business. “Chairman” was changed to “chair,” “sailor” was changed to “sailor,” and gender-specific words such as “daughter” and “sister” were changed to “child” and “brother.”
The current House adopted the same gender-neutral language in its rules package. But Republicans have criticized those changes and the broader diversity, equity and inclusion movement. The term “chairman” appears to be used almost exclusively on personal and committee websites in the House of Commons, where House rules do not apply. The same goes for the Senate. As a result, Warsh will testify before Senate President Tim Scott and House Speaker French Hill during his semi-annual testimony.
A 2024 analysis by Bloomberg found that 185 of the S&P 500 companies use gender-neutral language, three times as many as just four years ago. However, the largest banks JP Morgan Chase, goldman sachs and morgan stanley I used “chairman”. in citygroupJane Fraser is “Chairman,” but so was her predecessor, John C. Dugan.
Alicia Sillett, founder of chair and director network Chairs & Read and its predecessor group Madame Chair, didn’t think much of the change.
“Personally, I’m not going to read too much into Chairman Warsh’s title. I think it’s his personal decision to choose between ‘chair’ and ‘president’ based on his preference, just as a woman in office might decide to use ‘chair’ instead of ‘chair’ based on her preference,” she said.
