Exter was born in 1910 and graduated from the
College of Wooster (1928–1932). He then went to the
Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy and in 1939, to
Harvard University for graduate work in economics because of his interest in understanding the causes of the
Great Depression. After a stint at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology during World War II, Exter joined the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System as an economist. In 1948 he served first as adviser to the Secretary of Finance of the Philippines and then to the Minister of Finance of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) on the establishment of central banks. Between 1950 and 1953, Exter was the founder governor of the
Central Bank of Ceylon. In 1953, he became the division chief for the Middle East at the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. In 1954, the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York appointed him vice president in charge of international banking and precious metals operations. Exter left the New York Fed in 1959 to join
First National City Bank (then the world's second largest bank) as a vice president. The next year he was promoted to senior vice president. As an international monetary adviser for the bank's International Banking Group he had special responsibilities for relations with foreign central banks and governments. In 1972 he took early retirement to become a private consultant. Exter was a member of the
Council on Foreign Relations, the Committee for Monetary Research & Education, the
Mont Pelerin Society, and the
Pilgrims of the United States. He and his wife Marion had four children. == Exter's Pyramid ==