The appointment of the new members of the board of the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) came into force July 10th in the Official Gazette No. 41,434. The designations came after several changes in Nicolás Maduro’s economic and financial cabinet in recent weeks, such as the appointment of Calixto Ortega as the new president of the BCV and the former Vice President of Venezuela Tareck El Aissami as the new head of the Sectoral Economy Vice Presidency.

The appointments of the following public officers in the board of the Central Bank add to Calixto Ortega’s and Tareck El Aissami’s designations:

• Simón Zerpa Delgado, current Minister of Economy and Finance, who will continue in office. Previously, he was vice president of Finance for state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and president of the public development bank Bandes;
• William Antonio Contreras, economist and former National Superintendent for the Defense of Socioeconomic Rights (Sundde) from January 2016 until July 10th. Previously, he had been National Superintendent of Costs and Prices (Sundecop) and Minister of Industry;
• Yosmer Daniel Arellán Zurita, who was National Superintendent of Securities from November 2017 until July 10th. Previously, he had served as director of the National Missions Fund and Superintendent of Insurance Activity;
• Iliana Josefa Ruzza Terán, economist from Universidad de los Andes and former General Manager of the Economic and Social Development Bank of Venezuela. She was also vice president of Finance of PDVSA;
• Santiago Armando Lazo Ortega, who served as Venezuela’s representative at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). In addition, he worked in the Andean Development Corporation and in the Development Bank of Latin America.
• Sohail Hernández Parra, was ratified in her position and is the only member who remains in the board since 2014. She is an economist with a Master’s degree in International Economics. She was Vice Minister of Economy and International Cooperation of Venezuela. In recent years she served as executive manager of the Economic Development Bank and in 2009 she was in the Financing Directorate of the Ministry of the Communes.