The Bank of Israel's research department director, Nathan Sussman, has named Adi Brender as the new head of the research unit's macroeconomics and policy division. He will replace Michel Strawczynski, who is moving to academia after two decades working at the central bank.

Brender was previously head of the research department's public sector unit at the Bank of Israel, which he joined in 1997, after five years working with the International Monetary Fund. He holds a PhD from Columbia University