Who is the New Finance Minister?

Having worked next to two Greek Prime Ministers (elected PM Kostas Simitis and non elected coalition government PM Loukas Papadimos), Hardouvelis is the kind of technocrat with an untarnished profile needed by Antonis Samaras to carry on the difficult task of Greek debt relief negotiations with the Troika auditors.

Interestingly enough, in a country where leaks are the order of the political (and judicial) day, Hardouvelis' name came as a complete surprise to all pundits and political commentators in the Greek media. He will be taking over the Finance ministry from Yiannis Stournaras, who is rumored to be the next Bank of Greece governor. Here's his complete CV.

Gikas A. Hardouvelis is a Professor of Finance & Economics, Department of Banking and Financial Management at the University of Piraeus and Chief Economist & Director of Research, EUROBANK Group. Recently he held position of the Director of the Economic Office of Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos (Nov. 2011–May 2012).

Member of the CIIM Academic Council, the Board of Directors of the Foundation for the Economic & Industrial Research, and member of the Academic Council of the Hellenic Banks Association & its EMAC-EBF representative. He is also Research Fellow at CEPR & CMBI.

He holds a Ph.D. in Economics (1983, U.C. Berkeley), and M.Sc. & B.A. in Applied Mathematics (1978, Harvard University). He was Assistant Professor at Barnard College, Columbia University (1983-1989), Associate Professor and subsequently Full Professor at Rutgers University (1989-1993).

During 2000-2004, he was Director of the Economic Office of Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis. He has extensive banking experience: FRB New York (1987-1993), Bank of Greece (1994-1995), where he also acted as Second Alternate to the Governor at the European Monetary Institute, Chief Economist at the National Bank of Greece (1996-2000).

He played a critical role in the establishment of the Athens Derivatives Exchange, as an original member of its Board of Directors (1997-2000).

His academic work extends in Finance and Macroeconomics and is published in journals including the American Economic Review, Journal of Finance, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Monetary Economics, etc. He was included in the Hall of Fame of the Top-50 individual publishers worldwide in applied econometrics over 1989 to 1995.