42 Facts About Axel Kicillof

Axel Kicillof has been a firm believer in Keynesian economics, and an avid admirer of the Kirchners since his student days when he was a member of the pro-Kirchner youth group La Campora and head of the radical student group TNT.

From 1984 to 1989, Axel Kicillof attended the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires.

Axel Kicillof was the top student in his class of 122.

Axel Kicillof was the head of the student organization Tontos pero No Tanto and was a member of the Kirchnerist youth group La Campora, now headed by Maximo Kirchner.

Axel Kicillof was an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Economic Sciences at UBA from 1998 to 2010.

In 2003, Axel Kicillof became the first head teaching assistant and later regular adjunct professor of economics II in the sociology track.

Axel Kicillof taught economics at the Escuela Superior de Comercio Carlos Pellegrini, the Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, and the Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento.

At the postgraduate level, Axel Kicillof 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.

Axel Kicillof taught a course entitled "Differentiation of Capital in the Field of Health" in the faculty of economics at the University of Buenos Aires.

Since November 2010, Axel Kicillof has been an assistant researcher for CONICET.

Axel Kicillof served as research assistant and junior economist at the Inter-American Center for Macroeconomic Studies from 1994 to 1995 and concurrently served as adviser on the National Commission for Promotion and Development of Patagonia in 1994.

Axel Kicillof was appointed deputy general manager of Aerolineas Argentinas in 2011.

Axel Kicillof justified this action as part of a needed reversal of the Argentinian economic policies of the 1990s, when the peso had been pegged to the dollar and government assets had been sold off.

In connection with his oversight of the seizure of YPF, Axel Kicillof served as a Director of YPF SA starting in June 2012.

Axel Kicillof has been called "the ideologue of the expropriation of YPF".

El Pais reported in August 2014 that Axel Kicillof had recently prevailed over the president of the Central Bank, Juan Carlos Fabrega, in two debates, including the question of whether to pay holdout creditors.

El Pais stated that Axel Kicillof had become "one of the most powerful officials" in the Fernandez de Kirchner government and that he now not only ran the Ministry of Economy but wielded considerable influence over other ministries and executive agencies.

Axel Kicillof was a central figure in the 2014 dispute with holdout bondholders, particularly with NML Capital Limited, the Cayman Islands-based hedge fund demanding US$832 million for Argentine bonds purchased for US$49 million in the secondary market in 2008.

The president of Argentina's Central Bank, Juan Carlos Fabrega, advocated paying off the holdout creditors while Axel Kicillof argued against it.

Axel Kicillof represented Argentina at the November 2014 G-20 Summit in Brisbane, Australia, where he called on member nations to adopt measures against vulture funds.

Axel Kicillof accused Judge Thomas Griesa, who had ordered Argentina to pay the holdout creditors on their terms, of making "a legal stew" that prevented Argentina from paying other creditors.

Ahead of the 2015 general election, Axel Kicillof was announced as the first candidate in the Front for Victory list to the Argentine Chamber of Deputies in the City of Buenos Aires.

Axel Kicillof authored bills to declare the access to water, gas and electricity services a human right; to promote formal employment to the Argentine transgender population; to guarantee gender equality in employment; and to formalise the Renovate, Ahora 12, PROCREAR and PROGRESAR programmes, flagship policies of his tenure as finance minister, among others.

Onboard a 2011 Renault Clio, Axel Kicillof visited all 135 partidos in the province meeting local activists, supporters, and members of the general public.

Ahead of the 2019 provincial elections, Axel Kicillof was nominated by the newly formed Frente de Todos coalition as candidate to the governorship of Buenos Aires.

Axel Kicillof continued his travels onboard the 2011 Clio focusing his campaign on attacking the administration of incumbent governor Maria Eugenia Vidal, of the Cambiemos alliance, a close ally to president Mauricio Macri.

Axel Kicillof was sworn in as governor on 11 December 2019.

Axel Kicillof was sworn-in for his second term on 11 December 2023.

Axel Kicillof denies a correlation between the supply of money in the economy with inflation, and favor a trade surplus, which he associates with better economic performance than a trade deficit.

Axel Kicillof has been criticized for his alleged unwillingness to negotiate.

In October 2014, Axel Kicillof was denounced for his purported links with the Latam Securities Investment Fund.

Bonelli noted that Axel Kicillof had close ties to Diego Marynberg of Latam, and that Alvarez Agis had close ties to UBS Investment Bank official Jorge Pepa, who handled the Latam transaction while at UBS and who, some months later, was hired by Marynberg at Latam.

On 10 March 2015, La Nacion reported that Axel Kicillof had been "accused of 'occupational fraud' in his own ministry".

Axel Kicillof was acquitted for absence of crime by the Federal Chamber of Criminal Appeals on 13 April 2021.

Axel Kicillof has published articles, both alone and in collaboration in a number of general publications, such as Clarin, La Nacion, and Le Monde Diplomatique.

Axel Kicillof has contributed many articles, both alone and in collaboration, to such economic journals as Realidad Economica, II Encontro InterNacional da Associacao Keynesiana Brasileira, Desarrollo economico - revista de ciencias sociales, I Jornada de Economia Politica de la Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento, I Jornadas de Economia Critica, Capital and Class, and Jornadas de Epistemologia de las Ciencias Economicas.

Axel Kicillof is married to Soledad Quereilhac, a professor of literature at the University of Buenos Aires and the author of a 2014 book, La imaginacion cientifica.

Axel Kicillof's younger sister, Irene, is a psychologist and translator.

Axel Kicillof's older brother, Nicolas, is a software engineer living in New York City.

Laura Di Marco wrote in La Nacion in November 2013 that Axel Kicillof "is the son Cristina [Fernandez de Kirchner] would have liked".

Newsweek reported in July 2014 that Axel Kicillof enjoyed "the full backing of Argentina's President Cristina Kirchner".

Axel Kicillof supported the legalization of abortion in Argentina and urged his colleagues of the Justicialista Party to "give women the right to decide about their bodies".