People: BoE appoints general counsel; Chicago Booth professor joins Slovakian board

UK: Sonya Branch was appointed as the Bank of England's (BoE) general counsel today, an executive director-level position at the head of the central bank's legal directorate. She replaces Graham Nicholson, who retires at the end of April.

Branch joins the central bank from the UK's Competition and Markets Authority, where she is currently executive director for enforcement.

She was formerly executive director for enforcement and mergers at the Office of Fair Trading, and a partner at law firm Clifford Chance, where she specialised in mergers, acquisitions, markets and competition.

BoE governor Mark Carney said: "Sonya brings excellent judgement, versatility, a commitment to public service, as well as extensive private sector experience."

The BoE hired headhunting firm Hedley May to perform the search, in a break with past appointments that were overseen by Odgers Berndtson.

Slovakia: The National Bank of Slovakia has appointed Ľuboš Pástor, a professor of economics at the Chicago Booth School of Business, to its board. Pástor's appointment brings the board, the central bank's senior governing body, to a total of five members.

Pástor has been teaching economics at Chicago Booth since 1999, the same year he graduated with a PhD in finance from the University of Pennsylvania. He became a full professor in 2005 and, since 2014, has co-directed the university's Fama-Miller Center for Research in Finance.

Pástor's work centres on financial economics, including liquidity, the effects of political uncertainty on financial markets, bubbles, technology and long-horizon volatility. He has won multiple prizes for his research and teaching.

Malaysia: Bank Negara Malaysia has appointed a new chairman of its Small Debt Resolution Committee. Wan Azhar Wan Ahmad has succeeded Yusof Hussein, who is stepping down after more than 10 years on the committee.

Ahmad was formerly president and chief executive officer of the Credit Guarantee Corporation, an organisation that backs loans to small companies.

The committee oversees the Small Debt Resolution Scheme, which was established in 2003 to provide support to viable small businesses in Malaysia that are struggling with financial difficulties. The scheme provides "rehabilitation solutions" through restructuring or rescheduling debt, or providing new financing, where appropriate, the central bank says.

US: The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond has promoted two long-standing staff members to senior vice-president roles. John Weinberg has been appointed senior vice-president and special adviser to the president, while Kartik Athreya has been named senior vice-president and director of research.

Weinberg joined the Richmond Fed in 1992, and became research director in 2005. "John is a well-respected policy adviser. This new role will advance the Richmond Fed's aim to provide public policy leadership," said Richmond Fed president Jeffrey Lacker.

Athreya joined the Richmond Fed in 2000, and became group vice-president of microeconomics and research communications in 2012. He was previously a senior economist and research adviser.

"Kartik is an accomplished researcher and has published significant work in consumer finance. He has broad leadership experience within the Federal Reserve and the larger economic research community," Lacker said.