Richard Syron

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Richard Francis Syron was born in Boston on October 25, 1943.

Richard F. Syron is chairman and chief executive officer of Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), a New York Stock Exchange traded company and the second largest source of mortgage financing in the United States. Syron joined Freddie Mac in December 2003 from Thermo Electron, an S&P 500 company with 11,000 employees doing business in 30 countries and a world-leader in the design and development of high-tech instruments. He was chairman of the board.

Syron joined Thermo Electron in June 1999 as president and chief executive officer, and became chairman in January 2000. At Thermo Electron, Syron designed and executed a revamping of the company's organizational, legal and capital structure, reshaping an organization of 24 publicly traded companies in six different industries into one operating company focused on the instruments business.

Prior to becoming chief executive at Thermo Electron, Syron was chairman and chief executive officer of the American Stock Exchange (Amex), America's second oldest organized equities trading marketplace. Syron joined the Amex as chief executive officer in 1994 and for five years led it through a period of remarkable growth, including a merger in 1999 into the National Association of Securities Dealers, the organization that runs the NASDAQ.

Prior to joining the Amex as chief executive officer, Syron held senior posts in the banking sector including top positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston. During his time at the Federal Reserve from 1989 through 1994, Syron helped shape monetary policy as a member of the Federal Reserve Board's monetary policy making Federal Open Market Committee. Syron also was sponsor of a landmark study on racial discrimination in mortgage lending during this time, and was the key figure in the restructuring of New England's banking system following the strains from the 1980s and early 1990s.

While with the Federal Home Loan Bank system, which he joined in 1986, Syron was the primary architect of the policy framework that began the recapitalization of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation in 1987.

Before joining the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston as president in 1986, Syron held a number of policy and staff positions with the Federal Reserve System, including assistant to the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board Paul Volcker beginning in January 1981 through early 1982.

Prior to being named the assistant to Volcker, Syron was deputy assistant secretary of the United States Treasury with responsibility for developing the department's position on all domestic economic policy issues, and extensive interaction with other executive branch agencies, Congress and the public.

Prior to joining the Treasury Department, Syron held a series of increasingly responsible economic research, policy and managerial positions in state and national government.

In addition to his role with Freddie Mac, Syron serves as director emeritus of the Freddie Mac Foundation’s board of directors. Started in 1991, the Freddie Mac Foundation is dedicated to creating hope and opportunity for children, youth and their families and has helped better the lives of more than 1.7 million children.

Syron is also a trustee and former chairman of the board of trustees of Boston College, a trustee of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and a member of the board of directors of the Genzyme Corporation.

Syron earned his undergraduate degree from Boston College and masters and doctorate degrees in economics from Tufts University.

Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned company established by Congress in 1970 to support home ownership and rental housing. Freddie Mac fulfills its mission by purchasing residential mortgages and mortgage-related securities, which it finances primarily by issuing mortgage-related securities and debt instruments in the capital markets. Over the years, Freddie Mac has made home possible for one in six homebuyers and more than four million renters in America.