Ben Bernanke is an American economist who served as the 14th Chair of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014. He is known for his role during the 2008 financial crisis, where he implemented policies to stabilize the economy, including lowering interest rates and introducing quantitative easing. Before leading the Federal Reserve, Bernanke was a professor at Princeton University and a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. He has written extensively on monetary policy and the Great Depression, contributing to the understanding of economic crises and the importance of central banking in managing them.