Ben Bernanke is an American economist, who served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States of America, for two terms. Before taking on the responsibility at the FR, he worked as a professor and the chairman of the Department of Economics, Princeton University. Born in Georgia and raised in South Carolina, he grew up in a middle class household. In 1971, Ben pursued Bachelors and Masters in Economics from Harvard University. Thereafter, he enrolled at the MIT and earned a PhD before pursuing a career as an economist. Before teaching at the Princeton University, he was a professor at the Stanford University. In 2002, he finally joined the Federal Reserve System and became its chairman in 2006. His role became important during the financial crisis of the late 2000s, and he played a great role in stabilizing the situation. He was selected for a second term in 2010 and remained on the post until 2014.