Factbox-Potential candidates as next chief of Australia’s central bank

11:28 pm Tuesday, July 04th, 2023

By Wayne Cole

SYDNEY (Reuters) – The Australian government will announce this month whether it would reappoint Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Philip Lowe or replace him. Here’s a list of people being touted as possible replacements.

* Michele Bullock, 60, became the first female Deputy Governor of the RBA when she was appointed in the role in April 2022. A career central banker, Bullock joined RBA as an analyst in 1985. She studied economics at the University of New England and a masters from the London School of Economics.

* Steven Kennedy, 58, the head of the federal Treasury since 2019. He has also been a member of the RBA board during this time. Kennedy was an economic adviser to Labor prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard during the global financial crisis. He studied economics at Sydney University, and completed a PhD in health economics at the Australian National University.

* Jenny Wilkinson, 56, the head of the government’s Department of Finance and a former RBA staffer for more than a decade. She has been head of the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) and Treasury deputy secretary. She has an economics degree from ANU and a masters in public affairs from Princeton.

* David Gruen, 68, who is married to Wilkinson is another contender. Gruen heads the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and worked at the RBA from 1989 to 2002, rising to head of economic research. He joined the Treasury in 2003. He has PhD degrees in physiology from Cambridge University and in economics from the Australian National University.

* Martin Parkinson, 64, is a former top public servant and has been chancellor of Macquarie University since 2019. He has been secretary of Treasury, serving on the RBA board for four years, and secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. He has an economics degree from Adelaide University, a masters from ANU and a PhD from Princeton.

* Guy Debelle, 56, a former RBA deputy governor who currently holds several part-time roles including as a director of Fortescue Future Industries and an investment adviser to Australia’s second-largest super fund. Debelle ended 25 years at the RBA by resigning in 2022 to work for billionaire Andrew Forrest’s renewable energy unit. He has an economics degree from the University of Adelaide and a PhD from MIT.

* Another name touted in the media but now seemingly out of favour, is former Bank of Canada official Carolyn Wilkins, who led a review into the RBA.

(Editing by Shri Navaratnam)