William McChesney Martin Jr. (December 17, 1906 – July 27, 1998) was an American business executive who served as the 9th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1951 to 1970, making him the longest holder of that position.

From there, Martin's rapid rise in the financial world landed him in 1931 a seat on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), just two years after the Wall Street crash of 1929 at the outset of the Great Depression.

[2] During the early part of that decade, Martin's work towards increasing regulation of the stock market led to his election to the NYSE's board of governors in 1935.

There, he worked with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to reestablish confidence in the stock market and prevent future crashes.

He eventually became president of the New York Stock Exchange at age 31, leading newspapers to label him the "boy wonder of Wall Street."

From the Treasury's perspective, Martin was a valuable representative, for he had a thorough understanding of the Federal Reserve System and of financial markets.

The chairman of the Board of Governors at the time of ratification was Thomas B. McCabe (1893–1982), who would officially resign from his position just six days after the statement of the Accord was released.

As chairman, he institutionalized this strategy in the proceedings of the FOMC, gathering the opinions of all governors and presidents within the System before making decisions.

The task of the Federal Reserve, he famously said, is "to take away the punch bowl just as the party gets going,"[4][5] that is, raise interest rates just when the economy reaches peak activity after a recession.

[6] After the presidential election of 1960, Republican Party candidate Richard Nixon blamed his defeat on Martin's tight-money policies.

Pursuing a tight-money policy to suppress inflation, by mid-1969 Martin ran afoul of Nixon's concern that the Fed was in danger of pushing the nation into economic recession, a belief that had been publicly stated by conservative economist Milton Friedman.

After his tenure at the Federal Reserve, Martin held directorships in various corporations and nonprofit organizations, such as the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.