Profile: Hernán Lacunza

Jorge Roberto Hernán Lacunza, 50, was born in the City of Buenos Aires and is married with two children. He studied economics at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and completed a postgraduate degree at the Torcuato Di Tella University (UTDT).

His life in the public sector began as the director of the Centre for International Economy, a Foreign Ministry think-tank, which he led between 2002 and early 2005. After that experience he assumed as general manager and chief economist of the Central Bank between 2005 and 2010, when Martín Redrado was president.

From 2010, Lacunza served as director of Empiria Consultores, until in December 2013, Mauricio Macri, as mayor of Government of Buenos Aires City, asked him to take up the position of general manager of Banco Ciudad, during which time he served under the then-president and current Interior Minister Rogelio Frigerio.

When María Eugenia Vidal was elected governor

of Buenos Aires Province in December, 2015, Lacunza became the provincial economy minister.

A big football fan, Lacunza – the elder brother of former Buenos Aires Herald editor Sebastián Lacunza – speaks calmly and will need a cool head to maintain an open channel with the IMF while attending to the needs of Argentines. As the peso’s drop increases prices of imported goods, inflation is likely to accelerate again, adding to the pain of a country suffering double-digit unemployment.

“I’m deeply sorry that HernánLacunzawillhave to take care of this disaster,” Guillermo Nielsen, an economic adviser for Fernandez, said in a Twitter post. “A professional with his track record and integrity deserves to take care of a more normal situation.”