SANTIAGO -(Dow Jones)- Chilean President-elect Sebastian Pinera tapped Harvard-educated economist Felipe Larrain to serve as Finance Minister, the local La Segunda evening newspaper reported Tuesday.
Pinera, the first democratically elected conservative Chilean President in 52 years, is scheduled to announce his cabinet at 2100 GMT.
Larrain, an economics professor at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile and also member of the board of several local companies, told Dow Jones Newswires he couldn't confirm or deny the report.
The newspaper reports that University of Chicago-trained economist Juan Andres Fontaine, who's currently the Chairman of the Board at the electronic bourse Bolsa Electronica de Chile, was named Economy Minister.
Fontaine, who sits on the board of Banco de Chile (BCH, CHILE.SN), couldn't be reached for confirmation.
The Energy Ministry will be headed by sector expert Raimundo Rainieri and the Mining Ministry will be led by Laurence Golborne, a former chief executive of retail holding Cencosud SA (CENCOSUD.SN), the newspaper reported. Raineri declined to comment and Golborne couldn't be immediately reached.
For the key political ministries, Pinera named his campaign manager Rodrigo Hinzpeter to the Interior Ministry and Cristian Larroulet, one of his leading advisors, to the cabinet-level position of chief of staff. The government spokeswoman, also a cabinet-level position, will be Ena von Baer, who recently lost a parliamentary bid, the newspaper reported.
Pinera and his cabinet take office March 11.
(Anthony Esposito contributed to this article.)
Copyright 2009 Dow Jones Newswires
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