Yanis Varoufakis served as Minister of Finance of Greece in 2015. Varoufakis (*1961) studied economics in the UK, first at the University of Essex and secondly mathematical statistics at the University of Birmingham. He has a PhD in economics. He then taught economics and econometrics at the University of Essex and the University of East Anglia. In 1988, he spent a year as a Fellow at the University of Cambridge. From 1989-2000 he taught as senior lecturer in economics at the Department of Economics of the University of Sydney and in 2000 he accepted the offer to become Professor of Economic Theory at the University of Athens, which he has resumed in 2017 after a two-year-break. From 2004-06, Varoufakis served as economic advisor to George Papandreou, then Prime Minister of Greece. In 2012 Varoufakis became Economist-in-Residence at Valve Corporation. He researched the virtual economy on the Steam digital delivery platform, specifically looking at exchange rates and trade deficits. From 2013-14 he taught at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin as a visiting professor. On 25 January 2015, Varoufakis was appointed finance minister by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras after the election victory of Syriza in the parliamentary election. Varoufakis resigned as Finance Minister on 6 July 2015. In February 2016 he announced the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 "DiEM 25". He is leader of MeRA25, DiEM25's new progressive party in Greece and since July 2017 Yanis Varoufakis is Member of Parliament in Greece. Varoufakis is the author of several books on game theory, he also is a recognised speaker and often appears as analyst for national news media.