HispanicBusiness

Roberto Coronado is the new head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas' El Paso branch, the bank announced Wednesday.

Coronado, 35, an economist, began working for the El Paso branch in 2001, and worked at the Dallas Fed's Houston branch three years.

He's been the El Paso branch's economic outreach officer and will continue as the branch's chief economic contact while doing his new duties as assistant vice president in charge of the El Paso branch.

He replaces Robert "Bill" Gilmer, who was head of the El Paso branch since 2003. Gilmer retired from the Fed Bank and took a new job as director of a regional forecasting institute at the University of Houston.

In his new job, Coronado said, he'll work closely with the branch's board of directors and provide oversight of the branch's operations. The branch, in Downtown El Paso, provides cash and coins for financial institutions in West Texas and New Mexico. It also conducts symposiums and other presentations on financial and economic information and does economic studies.

"The Fed has been a great place for me to work, and I am eager and looking forward to the opportunities ahead of me," Coronado said. He'll continue to focus his and the Fed branch's research on the economies of the U.S.-Mexico border and of Mexico, he said.

"We are the (Fed Bank's) eyes and ears for the Mexico economy because of our border location," Coronado said.

Coronado, a native of Juarez, Mexico, received a business degree from the University of Texas at El Paso in 2000, a master's degree in economics from UTEP in 2002, and a doctorate in economics from the University of Houston in 2010.

He is also a clinical assistant professor at UTEP, where he teaches in the master of science in economics program.

More information: dallasfed.org/elpaso.cfm.