Valdés will assume the direction of the western department of the IMF on May 1 and will succeed Ilan Goldfajn, who left the IMF to serve as the seventh president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
“I am delighted to have Rodrigo join our team as the new director of the Western Hemisphere Department. Rodrigo is already familiar with the IMF, having from 2009 to 2012 was deputy director in the Western Hemisphere and Europe departments, where he is remembered as a generous administrator and broad intellectual influence, as he helped countries weather the aftermath of the global financial crisis”said the managing director.
Valdes, PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he works as a professor of Economics at the School of Government of the Catholic University of Chile.
The new director of the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Department was Chile’s Finance Minister from 2015 to 2017, and He worked for more than 16 years in the public sector of his country, holding senior positions in the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Chile, as well as in the Chilean private banking sector.
Valdés held the position of Chief Economist for Latin America, at Barclays Capital, in New York.
“Rodrigo has considerable experience in the public and private sectors and is highly respected for his leadership skills and academic qualifications,” pointed out the owner of the Fund.
He stressed that “His brilliant record as a policymaker, his remarkable analytical and communication skills, and his in-depth knowledge of international finance and the IMF will prove invaluable to our member countries at this critical juncture for the region and the global community.”
Source: Ambito
