Most nominees are female, observers note
The federal government is compiling a shortlist of candidates for Reserve Bank of Australia deputy governor, ranging from outsiders to rival internal contenders. RBA assistant governors Michele Bullock and Chris Kent are the internal frontrunners.
RBA observers believe an external appointment will “shake up the central bank,” Financial Review reported. The news outlet also predicted the deputy governor would likely be a woman – a first in the bank’s 62-year history.
RBA has traditionally been a conservative institution which almost never hires from outside, ANU Crawford School of Public Policy visiting fellow Steven Hamilton observed.
“This is an opportunity for the RBA to open up,” he said.
The RBA may also promote an insider to fill the vacant role, but hire an outsider as one of the five assistant governors.
Among candidates RBA watchers believe the government should consider for deputy governor are JBWere chief investment officer Sally Auld, Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation (CSC) chief investment officer Alison Tarditi, federal deputy secretary Meghan Quinn, IMF alternate executive director Angelia Grant, and New Zealand Treasury Secretary Caralee McLiesh.
The chosen candidate will replace Guy Debelle, the RBA’s top financial markets expert with contacts from global investment institutions.
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Auld advises clients on more than $60 billion of investments. Before joining JBWere, she was chief economist and head of fixed income at JPMorgan and worked as an economist at ANZ and Credit Suisse. Auld holds a PhD in economics from the University of Oxford and won the university medal for economics at the University of Sydney.
Tarditi invests more than $50 billion of public servants’ retirement savings. She was an economist at the RBA for nine years before working at BT Funds Management, Citigroup, then CSC for the last 15 years as chief investment officer.
Quinn worked at the Bank of England for eight years before working in the Treasury as deputy secretary of the macroeconomic group, then the Treasury’s markets group.
Both Tarditi and Quinn hold Master’s degrees in economics from the London School of Economics.
Grant is based at the IMF in Washington. She was an economic adviser to Liberal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Labor Prime Ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard. She used to head the Treasury’s macroeconomic conditions division. She has a PhD in economics from the Australian National University.
Before heading New Zealand’s Treasury, McLiesh was NSW Treasury deputy secretary between 2008 and 2018. She also worked at the World Bank. McLiesh has a PhD in finance from the University of Melbourne and graduated economics with honours at ANU.
The deputy governor is a voting member of the nine-member RBA board and oversees the bank’s internal operations.
