Martín Redrado

Fallout from the international, 2008 financial crisis later forced the Argentine government to seek domestic financing for growing public spending, as well as for foreign debt service obligations. The president ordered a US$6.7 billion account opened at the Central Bank for the latter purpose in December 2009, implying the use of foreign exchange reserves, and drawing direct opposition from Redrado. Following an impasse, he was dismissed by presidential decree on January 7, 2010, prior to which Economy Minister Amado Boudou had announced that Mario Blejer (who had expressed support for the measure) would be appointed in his stead.

Kirchner appointed Redrado President of the Central Bank of Argentina on September 24, 2004. The new central banker implemented the administration's policy of keeping a relatively undervalued Argentine peso to help bolster export competitiveness, while foreign exchange reserves soared to nearly US$50 billion. Confirmed by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner upon her December 10, 2007, inaugural, Redrado, by 2009, had become the third-longest serving Argentine Central Bank President since the institution's formal establishment in 1935.

The advent of the dot-com boom led Redrado to launch of InvertirOnline.com (only the third electronic trading platform in Argentina) in June 2000; the fledgling firm prospered despite the ensuing local financial crisis, and handled over 20,000 accounts by 2003. Redrado was named Secretary of Commerce (sub-cabinet) by President Eduardo Duhalde in 2002, and he was retained in the post by Duhalde's successor, President Néstor Kirchner.

Redrado was selected as one of the "100 Leaders for the Next Millennium" by Time Magazine's International Edition in 1995, and he returned to public service as Secretary of Technological Education (a sub-cabinet-level post), in 1996. He was asked to run for a seat in the newly created Buenos Aires City Legislature in 1997, but was unsuccessful, and he left the secretariat in 1998 to lead Trident Investment Group, a local venture capital firm specializing in health care.

Redrado has also had three books published on the subject of contemporary economics: Tiempos de desafíos (Challenging Times, 1995),Cómo sobrevivir a la globalización (How to Survive Globalization, 1999), and Exportar para crecer (Exporting for Growth, 2003).

Returning to Argentina in 1991, Redrado was appointed President of the National Securities Commission (CNV) by Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo, who had just implemented his Convertibility Plan and a far-reaching deregulation program. Coupled with the 1990 launch of an ambitious privatization policy by President Carlos Menem, these measures found Redrado overseeing a Buenos Aires Stock Exchange whose daily trading volume had risen around 20-fold within months. His tenure earned him the designation as Emerging Markets Committee President of the International Organization of Securities Commissions, in 1992. Differences with Cavallo over the 1993 privatization of the state oil concern, YPF, whose handling by Merrill Lynch and First Boston Redrado termed a "rip-off," led to his removal from the CNV in March 1994, however, and he established Fundación Capital, a think tank.

He earned a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University, and was brought on by the Wall Street investment firm Salomon Brothers, where he served as adviser on their handling of the privatizations of British Airways, British Gas plc and the French Compagnie Financière de Suez, during the late 1980s. He worked for Los Angeles-based Security Pacific Bank until 1991, in which capacity he oversaw the profit sharing plan for Enersis employees, and advised on the privatization of Telmex.

Hernán Martín Pérez Redrado (born September 10, 1961) is an Argentine economist. He served as President of the Central Bank between 2004 and 2010.

Born Hernán Martín Pérez Redrado in Buenos Aires in 1961, he enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires and received a degree in economics. He joined U.S. economist Jeffrey Sachs as part of his advisory board, which had been invited by Bolivian president Víctor Paz Estenssoro in 1985 to implement a restructuring of the Bolivian economy, then in crisis.