Who is new Oversight Board Executive Director Natalie Jaresko?

Natalie Jaresko was recently appointed to head the Puerto Rico Fiscal Management & Oversight Board as Executive Director. Hailing from Chicago, the 51 year old is the daughter of Ukrainian refugees, and got her master’s degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Her bachelor of science in accounting is from DePaul University in Chicago.

Since graduating, Jaresko worked in many government and finance related positions, including: the Office of Soviet Affairs within the US Department of State, working on the economic relationship between the USSR and the USA; the chief of Economic Section of the US Embassy within Ukraine; the Western NIS Enterprise Fund, working closely the the International Development Association (IDA) through whom she received $150 million to support small business owners; founding Horizon Capital, which eventually managed up to $600 million of Ukrainian investments; and finally, the Finance Minister of Ukraine under President Petro Poroshenko.

After 17 months as Finance Minister, Jaresko, during an interview, was proud of having helped “turn [Ukraine’s economy] around.”

Jaresko has also stated that although the plan laid out for Puerto Rico’s recovery “may seem daunting if not impossible to many, but [she] accepted this position because [she is] optimistic [they] can achieve it together.”