Former YPF CFO named as Argentina’s finance secretary

Alejandro Lew, who served as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of energy giant YPF from 2020 to 2023, took on the role of finance secretary on Monday. He will replace Pablo Quirno, who last week was appointed foreign minister. Lew had previously been on the Milei administration’s economic team: from December 2023 to June 2024, he was one of the directors and vice presidents of Argentina’s Central Bank, before resigning for “personal reasons.” Now, he will work under Economy Minister Luis Caputo, who celebrated the “return” of the newly-appointed secretary with a welcome post on X, saying he “had an extensive career in international banks.” Lew also worked at other energy companies and banks and, like many members of the economic team, he used to work at JP Morgan bank. His most recent role was as a director at renewable energy company 360 Energy.  In late 2023, then-Economy Minister and Peronist presidential candidate Sergio Massa fired Lew from his role at YPF after a spate of fuel shortages hit the country between the first round of the elections and the run-off, with some Massa supporters and other politicians drawing a connection between the timing of the shortages and Massa’s second-round defeat.