Boise’s Wiskirchen to direct Federal Reserve Bank in Salt Lake City

Anne Wallace Allen//December 21, 2010//

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: Brad Wiskirchen

Brad Wiskirchen, CEO of the Boise-based Keynetics, has been named a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Wiskirchen will direct the bank’s Salt Lake City branch, replacing former St. Luke’s Health System CEO Edwin E. Dahlberg, who is retiring from the branch’s board.

The Federal Reserve is the nation’s central bank. It formulates monetary policy, serves as a bank, administers consumer protection laws, and is a fiscal agent for the U.S. Government. Its Bank of San Francisco provides wholesale banking services to financial institutions in nine western states. It has branch offices in Los Angeles, Portland, Salt Lake City and Seattle, and a cash processing office in Phoenix.

Wiskirchen said branch directors contribute to the development of monetary policy by serving as a link between the federal reserve and the private sector.

“Most people figure the fed and the board members are a bunch of PhDs in economics,” he said Dec. 21. “For the most part they’re people with business backgrounds. I’m looking forward to learning a lot.”

He added that insights from Keynetics, Idaho’s largest privately owned tech company by revenue, would likely be valuable.

“We’re in a unique space, the e-commerce space,” he said of Keynetics.

The appointment is effective Jan. 1. Wiskirchen said he will remain in Boise at Keynetics, traveling to Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. for occasional federal reserve meetings.