Lagarde, the first woman to lead the ECB after being the first at the IMF
Former French minister Christine Lagarde will be the first woman to take over the presidency of the European Central Bank (ECB) succeeding Mario Draghi after being also the first woman to lead the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Christine Lagarde became the first woman to lead the IMF in 2011, succeeding Dominique Strauss-Kahn, another former French minister who resigned after being accused of sexual assault on a maid at a New York hotel.
Now the former French minister will be a pioneer again, becoming the first woman to lead the ECB, succeeding Italian Mario Draghi.
For now, the central bank of the eurozone has only two women among the 25 members of its governing body, the Board of Governors.
Prior to Mario Draghi, the ECB was headed by Frenchman Jean-Claude Trichet and Dutchman Wim Duisenberg, who was the first president of the institution.
Unmistakable presence, with a keynote address and a style, applauded as distinguished, elegant and chic, Lagarde was born 63 years ago in Paris and graduated in Law, having a postgraduate degree in Political Science.
She began practicing law in 1981, hired by the international law firm Baker & McKenzie, where she worked as a specialist in labor, competition and mergers and acquisitions.
Over time, Christine Lagarde rose in the ranks of the Baker & McKenzie, already in the United States, and entered the executive board in 1995, becoming, after four years, its president, becoming the first woman to occupy the direction of the firm.
In June 2005 he left the company to be part of the government of Nicolas Sarkozy.
She was appointed in 2005 to the trade portfolio and, two years later, Nicolas Sarkozy chose her to take over the trusteeship of Economy and Finance. In 2009, the Financial Times considered her the best finance minister in Europe.
As French Finance Minister, she chaired Ecofin in the second half of 2008 and then in the G20 during the French presidency in 2011.
When he completed his first five-year term in the IMF, after having acted in the first line of debt crisis management in the eurozone, he was re-elected by consensus for a second term in July 2016, with no other candidate appearing.
Christine Lagarde was in Portugal in March when she participated in the State Council, which took place at the Palácio de Belém in Lisbon, where the IMF’s director-general was the special guest.
Lagarde praised Portugal’s “tremendous progress” but stressed that efforts must be intensified in order to prepare the country for the future.
Lagarde is divorced and the mother of two children.
