Natalie Jaresko

Natalie Ann Jaresko (Ukrainian: Наталія Енн Яресько; born 24 April 1965) is an American-born Ukrainian investment banker who served as Ukraine's Minister of Finance from December 2014 until April 2016.[1] In 20 March 2017, she was appointed as executive director of the Financial Oversight & Management Board for Puerto Rico.

Natalie Jaresko Наталія Яресько
Executive Director of the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico
Incumbent
Assumed office 20 March 2017
Preceded by	Position established
Minister of Finance of Ukraine
In office 2 December 2014 – 14 April 2016
Prime Minister	Arseniy Yatsenyuk
Preceded by	Oleksandr Shlapak
Succeeded by	Oleksandr Danylyuk
Personal details
Born	24 April 1965 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Political party	Independent
Education	DePaul University (BS) Harvard University (MPP)

Early and personal life

Jaresko was born on 24 April 1965 in Elmhurst, Illinois,[2] the daughter of Mary (Maria), née Budziak, and John (Ivan) Jaresko, both Ukrainian immigrants to the United States.[3][4][5] Her father was born in Poltava Oblast during the Holodomor, during which her kulak great-grandparents, Feofan and Natalia Brazhnyk, starved to death.[4][6]

Jaresko was raised with two siblings, Katherine and John,[3] in Wood Dale, Illinois.[4] Although her family spoke mainly English, she attended Ukrainian school on Saturdays and the Ukrainian Orthodox church on Sundays.[5] She is bilingual in English and Ukrainian. Residing in Ukrainian Village, Chicago,[7] she studied accounting at DePaul University, earning a B.Sc. degree in 1987.[8] She received a master's degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1989.[4]

In 2011, she and her husband, Ihor Figlus, divorced. She has two daughters who live in Ukraine.[4][5]

Citizenship

Jaresko lived in Ukraine from 1992 to 2000, and returned in 2004.[9][10] She received Ukrainian citizenship on 2 December 2014, the day of her appointment as Minister of Finance of Ukraine.[11][12] She remains a U.S. citizen.[13] Although the U.S. does not prohibit dual citizenship, Ukrainian law states that she would have to renounce her non-Ukrainian citizenship(s) within two years.[14]

Career

Jaresko held several economics-related positions at the US Department of State in Washington, D.C., and eventually coordinated activities of the State Department, the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, the United States Trade Representative, and Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) in their economic relations with the Soviet Union and its successors.[15] As part of her work she interacted with the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Later from 1992 to 1995, she was the first Chief of the Economic Section of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, responsible for strengthening economic cooperation between the two countries.[9] She has been a governor of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.[15] In 2003 she was awarded the Ukrainian Order of Princess Olga for her contributions to the Ukrainian economy.[16][17]

Jaresko also held several key positions in the private business sector. In February 2001 she became president and chief executive officer of Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF), which had been disbursing United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funds to small and medium-sized businesses in Ukraine and Moldova since 1995.[18][19]

In 2006, she co-founded Horizon Capital, where she served as a managing partner and chief executive officer, which took over the management of WNISEF.[18] In those positions she established and strengthened economic ties with Ukraine and Moldova.[16][17] Horizon Capital managed two funds, the Emerging Europe Growth Fund aimed at institutional and individual investors in the west, and the USAID funded Western NIS Enterprise Fund which preceded Horizon Capital.[19] After the divorce of Jaresko and Ihor Figlus, who was a limited partner in Horizon Capital, Horizon Capital litigated to maintain the confidentiality of its internal financial arrangements.[20] When Jaresko left Horizon Capital in December 2014, it had about $600 million of Ukrainian investments under management.[4]

Between 2005 and 2010 Jaresko was a member of President Viktor Yushchenko's Foreign Investors Advisory Council and the advisory board of the Ukrainian Center for Promotion of Foreign Investment under the auspices of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.[16][17]

Ukrainian Minister of Finance

Nine months after the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, Jaresko was approached by headhunters for the new Ukrainian government, and within days offered the post of minister of finance.[21]

Early in Jaresko's term she made an outline agreement for a $40 billion four-year loan from the International Monetary Fund and Western countries.[18][22]

In August 2015 Jaresko was instrumental to restructuring Ukraine's debts, including a partial write-off with a 20% haircut on Ukraine's $18 billion privately held government debt.[23]

On 24 March 2016, shortly before she left office, she argued that the economy had to be depoliticized and Ukraine needed a technocratic government,[24] and that she was willing to lead such a technocratic government.[25] The Ukraine Today and Financial Times had reported speculation that Jaresko could become Ukraine's new prime minister, which was also suggested by former United States Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer and President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko.[26][27][28] The Ukrainian Weekly reported that Jaresko had started forming a provisional technocratic Cabinet of Ministers the previous month.[29]

Jaresko was rejected as a prime ministerial candidate by the governing coalition.[30] When speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, Volodymyr Groysman, was elected as Ukraine's new prime minister on 14 April 2016, he did not retain Jaresko in his new Cabinet.[30]

After she left office, Jaresko said she believed the Ukraine macroeconomic situation had stabilized,[31] and that Ukraine needed a further $25 billion of investment beyond the agreed IMF loans to "win over the hearts and minds of Ukrainian society" as the "immediate effects [of reform] on the population have been painful."[32]

Later career

In May 2016, Jaresko became chair of the board of trustees of the Aspen Institute unit in Kiev, a U.S. headquartered educational and policy studies NGO.[33][34]

In 20 March 2017, Jaresko became the executive director of the Financial Oversight Board of Puerto Rico,[35] as part of the PROMESA bill.[36] It has been reported in the media that Jaresko will make $625,000 a year, and her traveling, moving and security costs will be covered as part of her work.[37]

Other activities

• Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity (TCEI), member (since 2018)[38]
• Aspen Institute Kyiv, chair of the board of trustees (since 2016)[39]
• Aspen Institute, member of the board of trustees[39]

References

1. New Cabinet formed in Ukraine, UNIAN (14 April 2016)
2. "Яресько Наталія Іванівна" [Nataliya Ivanivna Yaresko: Biography] (in Ukrainian). lustration.co.ua. Archived from the original on 9 December 2014. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
3. "John Jaresko: Obituary". Chicago Tribune. 30 July 2001.
4. Forrest, Brett (5 March 2015). "The American Woman Who Stands Between Putin and Ukraine". Bloomberg.
5. Bergen, Kathy (10 April 2015). "Chicago child of immigrants takes on 'near-impossible' task in Ukraine". Chicago Tribune.
6. Jaresko, John (18 September 2005). "See No Evil: The End of Ukrainian Famine Denial". ukrainiangenocide.org.
7. Ellingsworth, James (8 July 2015). "Ukraine's finance chief Jaresko". Yahoo News. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 8 July 2015.
8. Hayda, Julian (25 January 2015). "DePaul alumna Natalie Jaresko serves as Ukraine finance minister". The DePaulia. Archived from the original on 20 March 2015.
9. "Foreign-born ministers in Ukraine's new cabinet". BBC News. 5 December 2014.
10. Bigg, Claire (3 December 2014). "Who Are Ukraine's New Foreign-Born Ministers?". RFERL.
11. "Poroshenko orders to grant citizenship to Jaresko, Kvitashvili and Abromavicius". Interfax-Ukraine. 2 December 2014.
12. "Foreign technocrats given Ukrainian citizenship before cabinet vote". Reuters. 2 December 2014.
13. Willershausen, Florian (2015.09.24) "Minister: Ukraine Making Comeback," Chicago Tribune, p. 16.
14. "Стаття 9. Прийняття до громадянства України – Про громадянство України". urist-ua.net.
15. "Natalie A. Jaresko CPA". Bloomberg. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
16. "Natalie A. Jaresko CPA: Executive Profile & Biography – Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com.
17. Natalie A. Jaresko Archived 6 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine. wnisefk.com
18. James Ellingworth (1 March 2015). "Meet the woman overhauling Ukraine's economy – and born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago". Business Insider. Associated Press. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
19. Natalie A. Jaresko (interview) (3 July 2007). "Ukraine's Bright Horizon". LEADERS. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
20. Robert Parry (18 February 2015). "Ukraine Finance Minister's American 'Values'". Consortium News. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
21. Tim Judah (11 October 2016). "How One Woman Tried to Save Ukraine From Economic Collapse". Time. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
22. "IMF signs off $17.5bn loan for Ukraine in second attempt to stave off bankruptcy". The Guardian. Reuters. 11 March 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
23. Maxim Eristavi (28 August 2015). "The woman who's trying to save Ukraine". Politico. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
24. Natalie Jaresko (24 March 2016). "Ukraine's economy needs to be depoliticized now". Kyiv Post. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
25. Daryna Krasnolutska, Volodymyr Verbyany (22 March 2016). "Ukraine's Jaresko Says She'd Be Willing to Head New Cabinet". Bloomberg. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
26. "Natalie Jaresko could become Ukraine's new PM by the end of the week – former U.S. diplomat". Ukraine Today. 8 March 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
27. Neil Buckley, Roman Olearchyk (8 March 2016). "Ukraine's US-born finance minister in talks on top post". Financial Times. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
28. Daryna Krasnolutska, Kateryna Choursina (14 March 2016). "Ukrainian President Sees Jaresko as Potential New Premier". Bloomberg. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
29. Zenon Zawada (4 March 2016). "Jaresko emerges as top candidate for prime minister". The Ukrainian Weekly. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
30. "Ukraine elects new Prime Minister". Daily Telegraph. Associated Press. 14 April 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2016. The Supreme Rada on Thursday voted 257-50 in favor of Volodymyr Groysman, a compromise choice nominated by President Petro Poroshenko after his apparent first choice, U.S.-born Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko, was rejected by the governing coalition.
31. "Ex-minister Jaresko: Ukraine back home now, in Europe". Ukrinform. 21 April 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
32. Melinda Haring (12 October 2016). "Natalie Jaresko Says $25 Billion More Needed to Make Ukraine's Reforms Irreversible". Atlantic Council. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
33. "Ukraine's former Finance Minister has a new job". Ukraine Today. 28 May 2016. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
34. "Board of Trustees". Aspen Institute Kyiv. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
35. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 6 June 2017. Retrieved 28 March 2017.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
36. Duffy, Sean P. (13 June 2016). "Text – H.R.5278 – 114th Congress (2015-2016): PROMESA". www.congress.gov.
37. Soto, Eric De León (28 March 2017). "Las "letras chiquitas" en el contrato de Jaresko". NOTICEL.
38. Transatlantic, bi-partisan Commission launched to prevent election meddling Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity (TCEI), press release of 11 May 2018.
39. Natalie Jaresko Aspen Institute.