JANET YELLEN

Age: 67

RESUME: Brown University, B.A. ; Yale University Ph.D.; University of California Berkeley professor; Fed governor ;Chairwoman of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors; San Francisco Fed president; Federal Reserve Board vice chairwoman, since 2010.

OUTSIDE INTERESTS: Abstract art and cooking.

KNOWN FOR: Focus on Fed’s “dual mandate” of inflation and unemployment. A stickler for details. Ties to two Nobel prize winners, husband and coauthor George Akerlof, and deceased mentor James Tobin.

FAMILY: Married since 1978 to George Akerlof, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics. One son, Robert Akerloff, an economist teaching at the U.K.’s University of Warwick.

IN HER OWN WORDS: “With employment so far from its maximum level and with inflation currently running, and expected to continue to run, at or below the Committee’s 2 percent longer-term objective, it is entirely appropriate for progress in attaining maximum employment to take center stage in determining the Committee’s policy stance.” —Janet Yellen, speech to AFL-CIO, Feb 11, 2013

OTHER LEADING CONTENDERS FOR FED CHAIRMAN:

BEN BERNANKE: Age 59. Fed chairman since 2006. Former chair of Princeton University economics department and of President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors. Steered central bank through crisis; architect of its easy money policies and exit plan. A safe choice for Mr. Obama, but Mr. Bernanke appears prepared to leave. Could he be talked into staying by a president looking for steady hands? Ph.D. in economics from M.I.T.

In his own words: “Although estimates of the efficacy of the Federal Reserve’s asset purchases are necessarily uncertain, most participants agreed that these purchases — by putting downward pressure on longer-term interest rates, including mortgage rates — continue to provide meaningful support to economic growth and job creation.” —Ben Bernanke press conference, March 20, 2013