Ricardo López Murphy

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Ricardo Hipólito López Murphy (born August 10, 1951) is an Argentine economist and politician born in Adrogué, Buenos Aires Province. He is the founder of the center-right movement Recrear para el Crecimiento ("Recreate for Growth"), and recently teamed with Mauricio Macri to create a new center-right party called Propuesta Republicana (PRO). He is married with three children. In the media he is often referred to as "the Bulldog", a nickname he has come to embrace himself. ^[1] ^[2]

López Murphy attended the National University of La Plata, where he received a Bachelor of Economics in 1975. He then went on to get his Master's degree in Economics from the University of Chicago in 1980. His professional career included being a university professor, a consultant and advisor to companies, international investors and financial institutions in Argentina and Latin America, such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the CEPAL, and the IADB. He also was Chief Economist at the FIEL economic think-tank in Argentina. ^[3]

In 1999, he entered politics when he was appointed Minister of Defense. He remained in this position until 2001 when he was briefly took the position of Minister of Economy for the government of Argentina. ^[4] He was fired after 8 days for presenting a fiscal tightening project aimed at preventing the 2001 economic crisis (having little political support from the president, Fernando de la Rúa). In 2002, he founded his political party Recrear and ran for the presidency in 2003, finishing third behind Carlos Menem and Néstor Kirchner, with 16% of the popular vote. ^[3]