The chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors since 1987, when he was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to succeed Paul Volcker. Greenspan was a private economic consultant from 1954 until 1987, excluding a 3-year period when he was Gerald FordÂ’s chairman of the PresidentÂ’s Council of Economic Advisors. He chaired a bipartisan National Commission on Social Security Reform from 1981 until 1983.