On April 8, a packed ballroom of students from the BYU Marriott School of Business listened to what Mary C. Daly, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, had to say: “If you want to learn and you want to give, you’ll have a beautiful life. That’s my main message to you today.” Then she added, “I’ll talk about the economy, too.”
Daly’s story often catches people by surprise. As a 15-year-old growing up in Missouri, Daly dropped out of high school and worked several jobs to help support her family. Her mentor, a women named Betsy, suggested that Daly earn her GED and then attend a semester of college. The latter was something she had never considered: “I didn’t really know that I could even go to college.” With encouragement, Daly applied to the University of Missouri and was accepted.
But Daly didn’t have enough money to pay for tuition—$213, to be exact. She shared her concern with her mentor, who then wrote her a check with the full amount to take to the bursar’s office. “With that simple effort, she changed my entire life,” Daly recalled. “So I went to college, I got a four-year degree, and I walked out of there knowing that I earned a great opportunity, and it came with a great responsibility.”
That responsibility now drives her leadership at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, where Daly combines quantitative and qualitative research to inform policies that impact millions of lives. She brings her life experience to work too, remembering how critical economic opportunity was for her and is for all Americans.
“I grew up with really dedicated people, and they were working hard to make their living, but even when you work hard, sometimes the economy doesn’t cooperate,” she said. “What I wanted to do when I got into a different situation was find a way to invest in myself so that I could come back and serve the broader public by helping the economy work with people.”
Daly’s work also involves traveling around the Twelfth District of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco—which includes the nine western-most states, the US territories of Guam and American Samoa, and the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands—to learn first-hand how businesses and households experience the economy. “I think of the Twelfth District as a microcosm of the whole US economy,” she said. “In Fairbanks, Alaska, they’re thinking about things a little differently than the intermountain states are, but we’re all grappling with the same issues of changes in policy.”
Daly manages what many may view as an impossibly busy schedule through her deep commitment to serve the American people. “It’s the service to others that lifts you and me up,” she stated. “I work on the economy, but whatever you choose to do, if you have that first principle of service, it will lead you to a place where you can always give, and you will always get.”
After Daly concluded her remarks, students snacked on kolaches and discussed the ways in which they were inspired. Reagan Morgan, a junior in the finance program from Park City, Utah, commented, “I love that she was able to tie in the BYU motto of going forth to serve by lifting those around her and helping the economy through her stewardship.”
First-year MBA student Michael Morton from Taylorsville, Utah, remarked, “She was right in line with all of the core values of BYU. It’s really nice to see someone who grew up in a different background still have the same BYU mentality of entering to learn and going forth to serve.”
Of all her many responsibilities, Daly declared her favorite to be talking to young people. She concluded her remarks with an assurance of hope for the rising generation: “I realize I’m trying to build a future that we can hand off to you. You are our future. So go out, serve, prosper, and know that your policy makers that are thinking about the economy today are really thinking about the world tomorrow.”
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Written by Kathryn Cragun