Volodymyr Stelmakh

Volodymyr Stelmach (Ukrainian Володимир Семенович Стельмах; born January 18, 1939 in Sumy Oblast ) is a Ukrainian politician and economist. From January 2000 to December 2002 and again from December 2004 to December 2010 he was president of the National Bank of Ukraine.

Stelmach studied economics at the University of Economics in Kiev and in Moscow, he bears the title of candidate of sciences ( Кандидат экономических наук ). In the Soviet Union, he held management positions at the State Bank of the USSR.

After the independence of Ukraine, he worked in the executive committee of the Ukrainian National Bank, in 2000, he was first appointed to the President, after his dismissal in late 2002 he was briefly director of a Ukrainian commercial bank. In December 2004, he was re-appointed as President of the National Bank of the newly elected President Viktor Yushchenko. In the 2007 General Election he stood as a candidate for the Blok Nasha Ukraine Corporation of Yushchenko and also gained a seat in the Verkhovna Rada; But Stelmach waived the adoption of the mandate. In 2007 the title Hero of Ukraine awarded him. Due to the sharp devaluation of the national currency hryvnia Stelmakh stood since 2008 under political pressure and the Parliament called for his removal, President Yushchenko but refused to release him.

In December 2010, he was dismissed by Viktor Yanukovych as president of the National Bank and replaced by Serhiy Arbuzov.