Nicholas Frederick Brady was born in New York City on April 11, 1930. He received his B.A. from Yale University (1952) and his M.B.A. from Harvard University (1954).Brady was chairman of the board of Dillon, Read and Company Inc., and a director of the NCR Corporation, the MITRE Corporation, and the H.J. Heinz Company. He also served briefly in the U.S. Senate (1982). During the Reagan administration, he worked on the President's Commission on Strategic Forces (1983), the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America (1983), the Commission on Security and Economic Assistance (1983), the President's Commission on Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Salaries (1984), and the Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management (1985). Brady served as secretary of the treasury in the presidential administrations of both Ronald Reagan (1988-1988) and George H.W. Bush (1989-1993).