Former IMF Turkey representative moves to Greek Cyprus to lead troika

NICOSIA

IMF’s former Turkey representative Mark Lewis, who left his office to his successor Srikant Seshadri yesterday, will lead IMF mission in Greek Cyprus.

The outgoing top IMF representative in Turkey, Mark Lewis, has been appointed as the new head of the IMF’s mission to Greek Cyprus and will lead a team that will review the country’s bailout program.

Mark Lewis, a U.S. national who has been with the organization since 1995, will replace Romanian Delia Velculescu, who has been the main person from the “troika” group – the European Commission, European Central Bank and the IMF – supervising Greek Cypriot reforms.

“After two and a half years as the IMF’s Mission Chief for Cyprus and as part of her regular career progression, Delia Velculescu will be moving on to another IMF assignment at the end of September, once the fifth review of the IMF-supported program and Article IV Consultation are expected to be concluded,” an announcement released by the fund yesterday read. “Mark Lewis has been responsible for overseeing numerous countries during his career at the IMF, including Russia, Morocco, Armenia, and Turkey. He will lead the team that will conduct the next [6th] review of the program later in the fall,” the IMF added.

Meanwhile, Srikant Seshadri replaced Mark Lewis’ position in Ankara as the senior resident representative of the IMF. Sashadri, who started his career at Goldman Sachs, has been working as one of the senior economists of the IMF since 2001.