New Greek Prime Minister Hails from MIT

Yasoo! Greece’s debt troubles are shaking world financial markets—and shifting the career trajectory of MIT alumnus Lucas Papademos ’70, SM ’72, PhD ’78. A former banker and European Central Bank vice president, Papademos was named interim prime minister of Greece on Thursday.

Papademos, who earned his MIT degrees in physics, electrical engineering and computer science, and economics, is taking on the enormous task of forming a new national unity government that will be charged with implementing the controversial European Union bailout package. The new government was due to be sworn in today at noon GMT.

The Guardian reports on his background:

“As he pointed out himself, he is an economist not a politician—having held academic positions at Columbia University, Harvard University and the University of Athens. He also worked for the Boston branch of the Federal Reserve.

“But Papademos's biggest job within Greece, until now, was to run the Bank of Greece between 1994 and 2002. That stint covered the period in which Greece prepared to join the eurozone (it was admitted at the start of 2001). He had previously served as the bank's chief economist for nearly a decade.

“Papademos went onto become vice-president of the European Central Bank, from 2002 to 2010. He left that job to become as an advisor to George Papandreou.”