Horn's tenure as the first woman president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland ended with her resignation effective April 8, 1987.
Karen N. Horn's groundbreaking tenure as president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland came to an end with her resignation, effective April 8, 1987. Her nearly five-year term had been marked by her historic status as the first woman to head any of the twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks, as well as her stewardship of the Bank through the turbulent Ohio savings and loan crisis of the mid-1980s, during which several state-chartered savings institutions failed or faced runs, requiring careful coordination between state and federal regulators.
Her departure from the Cleveland Fed opened the door to her subsequent career in the private sector, where she took on senior banking and corporate leadership roles, including at Bank One and later in various corporate board and advisory capacities.
Horn's resignation closed a historically significant chapter, but her legacy as a trailblazer endured. She remained a frequently cited figure in analyses of women's advancement in central banking and corporate finance, and her Cleveland Fed presidency is consistently referenced in retrospectives on the evolving role of women within the Federal Reserve System.
Following her Fed tenure, she continued to shape economic and corporate governance discourse through directorships at major corporations and involvement with research institutions such as the National Bureau of Economic Research.