The Argentina’s 43-year-old Economy Minister Axel Kicillof grabbed the international limelight with the announcement of Argentina’s second default in 13 years.  His good looks, star quality and persuasive skills fueled the imagination of swooning female Internet users  and his name was added to other personalities spawned by Argentina, such as Diego Maradona, Eva Peron and Lionel Messi.

Having captured the world’s attention, the young minister has a difficult mission at hand so that his name is not forever linked to Argentina’s bankruptcy.  His critics accuse him of being an academic idealist and “old school”, however he seemed to be doing exceptionally well since his appointment in November 2013.

With Argentina’s economy orbiting towards recovery, the international media, such as Financial Times, couldn’t help but label him as a “rising star”. Nonetheless, the U.S. judiciary decision against Argentina is forcing the economist who once studied  Karl Marx and wrote his dissertation on John Maynard Keynes is being forced to put his books and economic theory aside and take drastic action to revoke the situation.

His previous term of office proved that he can successfully handle difficult situation and make strategic decisions. However, most tweets concerning Mr. Kicillof gravitate towards his sideburns and unbuttoned white shirts rather than his economic prowess.

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• Axel Kicillof was born on September 25, 1971.
• He comes from a Jewish family of scientists. His father was a psychoanalists and his mother a psychologist.
• He is the second child of three siblings.
• He holds a doctorate in Economics from the University of Buenos Aires.
• He is married to Soledad Quereilhac and is the father of two children.
• He was professor of economics in the masters and doctoral programs for Social Sciences at the Institute of Economic and Social Development at the Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento (UNGS-IDES). In the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, FLACSO), he was the professor of the History of Economic Thought in the masters program for Public Policy for Development with Social Inclusion. Earlier, Kicillof taught economics in the masters and doctoral programs for Political Economics with the Argentinian Economy, specializing in two subjects, the History of Economic Thought and Microeconomics and Macroeconomics, Fundamental Concepts of the Political Economy. Kicillof also taught a course entitled “Differentiation of Capital in the Field of Health” in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Buenos Aires.
• He was instrumental to the expropriation and renationalization of YPF, a vertically integrated Argentine energy company engaged in the exploration and production of oil and gas.