Newly elected Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras appointed a UT visiting professor as the country’s finance minister Tuesday.

Yanis Varoufakis, a visiting professor in the LBJ School of Public Affairs, became an elected member of the Greek parliament this Sunday. He was sworn in as finance minister during a ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Athens on Tuesday.

Serving under Tsipras, Varoufakis will be a part of a new cabinet to advise the prime minister.

Varoufakis is one of the primary critics of Greece’s ongoing economic policies, which have sunk the economy to a historic low since the beginning of the Great Recession in December 2007, according to a statement from UT, “Varoufakis has been a leading voice of opposition to the policies conducted since the start of the financial crisis in Greece and throughout Europe by the European Union and its allied institutions, including the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank,” the statement said.

Robert Hutchings, dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs, said Varoufakis is not new to the discussion about the Greek economy.

“He’s a prominent public intellectual known, not only in Greece as a major political figure, but around Europe, and he has been at the forefront of the discussion of the crisis in the eurozone,” Hutchings said.

Varoufakis said he will implement economic solutions that work for the various stakeholders of the Greek economy.

“As the next finance minister, I can assure you that I shall not go into the Eurogroup seeking a solution that is good for the Greek taxpayer and bad for the Irish, Slovak, German, French and Italian taxpayer,” said Varoufakis.

Although Varoufakis only taught at UT for two years, Hutchings said his time at the LBJ School served both students and faculty.

“It’s great for us as a faculty to have had him here for two years and great for students to have had the chance to study under someone who is now doing one of the toughest jobs in the world,” Hutchings said