Government Switch for Gabriel Makhlouf

The New Zealand government’s chief economic and financial advisor Gabriel Makhlouf has landed the role of new Central Bank Governor in Ireland. The Irish Independent reports on the appointment.

The Central Bank of Ireland will be headed by a foreigner for the first time, the Independent writes, after the surprise decision by Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe to hand the top job to Egypt-born Makhlouf.

Makhlouf will take up the Irish job in September after Philip Lane heads to Frankfurt in June.

The Taoiseach said the job went to the best candidate, according to the newspaper. “It wasn’t restricted to Ireland, it wasn’t restricted to any one gender or anyone who was or was not currently working in the Central Bank, so it was done really the way top jobs should be filled,” Leo Varadkar said after a cabinet meeting held in Cork.

As Central Bank Governor Makhlouf will sit on the interest rate-setting ECB Governing Council, but a major factor tipping the decision in his favour is understood to be his organisational management skill.

Makhlouf was born in Egypt, the son of a Greek Cypriot father and Greek-Armenian mother. His parents were UN diplomats and he has lived in the Congo, Bangladesh, Samoa, Fiji and Ethiopia as well as the UK, France and New Zealand.

In his current job, the Irish Independent writes, he backed efforts to better assess “well-being” in the economy as well as “hard” economic numbers.

Original article by Irish Independent, May 2, 2019.

Photo by Vivek Prakash.