Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian appointed former finance minister Ali Tayebnia as his senior advisor on Sunday.

According to The Iran Project, Tayebnia, 64, served as Iran’s economy and finance minister from 2013 to 2017 under President Hassan Rouhani. He is an academic and has served in various state education institutions delivering courses on economy and finance.

He received his BA (1986) and MA (1989) in theoretical economics, and his PhD (1994) in economics, all from the University of Tehran and first in each class.

As part of Tayebnia’s doctoral studies, he spent a year studying at the London School of Economics under the supervision of Laurence Harris.