Factbox – Possible Candidates for Governor of Central Bank of Australia

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers will hold a press conference at 9:40 a.m. on Friday (2340 GMT, Thursday).

Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Philip Lowe’s current seven-year term ends on September 17.

Here’s a list of those approached to replace him.

* Michelle Bullock, 60, appointed as the RBA’s first female deputy governor in April 2022. He studied economics at the University of New England and earned a master’s degree at the London School of Economics.

* Steven Kennedy, 58, Director of the Federal Treasury since 2019. During this period he was also a member of the RBA Board of Directors. He served as an economic adviser to Labor Prime Ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard during the global financial crisis. He studied economics at the University of Sydney and earned a PhD in health economics from the Australian National University (ANU).

* Jenny Wilkinson, 56, director of government finance and former RBA assistant for more than ten years. He headed the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) and served as Under Secretary to the Treasury. He holds a degree in economics from ANU and a master’s in public affairs from Princeton.

* David Grune, 68, married to Wilkinson, is another candidate. Mr. Grune is the head of the Australian Bureau of Statistics and worked at the RBA from 1989 to 2002, where he was appointed director of economic research. He joined the Treasury in 2003. He received a PhD in Physiology from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in Economics from the Australian National University.

* Martin Parkinson, 64, a former senior civil servant, has been chancellor of Macquarie University since 2019. He was Treasury Secretary, served on the RBA Council for four years and served as Secretary to the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. He holds an Economics degree from the University of Adelaide, an MA from ANU and a PhD from Princeton University.

* Former RBA deputy governor Guy Debelle, 56, currently holds a number of part-time roles, including director of Fortescue Future Industries and investment adviser to Australia’s second-largest pension fund. Mr Debelle ends 25 years at the RBA by stepping down in 2022 to work in billionaire Andrew Forrest’s renewable energy division. He graduated with a degree in economics from the University of Adelaide and a PhD from MIT.

* Another name cited in the media is Caroline Wilkins, a former Bank of Canada official who led the review of the RBA.