Christine Lagarde is a French lawyer and politician who has held several high-profile international positions.
Born on January 1, 1956, in Paris, France, Lagarde is a member of the French center-right party, Les Républicains.
Lagarde began her career as a lawyer, eventually becoming a partner at the international law firm Baker & McKenzie. In 2004, she was elected the firm’s first female chairperson.
In 2005, she entered French politics and held various ministerial positions, including Minister of Foreign Trade, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, and Minister of Economy, Finance, and Employment.
In 2011, Lagarde was appointed as the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), becoming the first woman to hold this position. She led the IMF during a challenging period marked by the European debt crisis and global economic turbulence. Lagarde served two terms at the IMF, stepping down in 2019.
In November 2019, Christine Lagarde became the first woman to serve as the President of the European Central Bank (ECB), succeeding Mario Draghi.
In this role, she is responsible for overseeing the monetary policy of the 19 European Union countries that have adopted the euro as their currency.
Throughout her career, Lagarde has been a trailblazer for women in finance and international leadership. She has been consistently ranked as one of the world’s most powerful women by Forbes and other publications.