Diane C. Swonk

Diane Swonk started her career with money-center bank First Chicago and has won many awards in her career for her excellence in her profession and leadership in the broader business community. She climbed from entry-level to Director of Research and Chief Economist at Bank One, the merged bank. Before joining KPMG, Diane had her own economic consulting firm and worked at Grant Thornton. She spent the prior 10+ years as Senior Managing Director and Chief Economist at the financial services firm, Mesirow Financial.

She served as an advisor to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the National Economic Council (NEC) on a nonpartisan basis. She regularly briefs the regional Federal Reserve banks and the Board of Governors in Washington, DC. She has provided Congressional testimony on income inequality and how to preserve and bolster the quality of government statistics on the economy.

She was honored by her peers as Fellow of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) for her outstanding contributions to the field. She serves on the NABE statistics committee to advocate for better information on the economy. Diane serves on the board of the Posse Foundation in Chicago, an organization dedicated to increasing access to higher education. She is active in supporting scholarships and programs to diversity the ranks of economists with more women and underrepresented minorities with her alumni groups and work on the NABE Foundation. She is a member of many business groups, including the Economic Advisory Board of the US Chamber of Commerce, and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Diane recently took over the growing economics team at KPMG to serve partners and clients, and to engage with the media to help showcase the firm’s many achievements. Diane was named one of the top 50 most influential economists during the pandemic. She has won numerous awards through the financial press and been recognized for her excellence in forecast by the regional Federal Reserve banks.