Christine Lagarde

Christine Lagarde
Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 July 2011
Deputy	John Lipsky David Lipton
Preceded by	Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Minister of Finance
In office 19 June 2007 – 29 June 2011
Prime Minister	François Fillon
Preceded by	Jean-Louis Borloo
Succeeded by	François Baroin
Minister of Agriculture
In office 18 May 2007 – 18 June 2007
Prime Minister	François Fillon
Preceded by	Dominique Bussereau
Succeeded by	Michel Barnier
Minister of Commerce and Industry
In office 2 June 2005 – 15 May 2007
Prime Minister	Dominique de Villepin
Preceded by	Christian Jacob
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Personal details
Born	1 January 1956 (1956-01-01) Paris, France
Political party	Union for a Popular Movement
Alma mater	Paris West University Nanterre La Défense Institute of Political Studies, Aix-en-Provence
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde (née Lallouette; born 1 January 1956) is a French lawyer and the managing director of the International Monetary Fund since July 5, 2011. Previously, she held various ministerial posts in the French government: she was Minister of Economic Affairs, Finances and Industry and before that Minister of Agriculture and Fishing and Minister of Trade in the government of Dominique de Villepin. Lagarde was the first woman ever to become minister of Economic Affairs of a G8 economy, and is the first woman to ever head the IMF.

A noted antitrust and labour lawyer, Lagarde made history as the first female chair of the international law firm Baker & McKenzie. On 16 November 2009, The Financial Times ranked her the best minister of finance of the Eurozone.

On 28 June 2011, she was named as the next managing director of the International Monetary Fund for a five-year term, starting on 5 July 2011, replacing Dominique Strauss-Kahn. This made her the 11th European running to head the IMF. In 2011, Lagarde was ranked the 9th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine.

Personal life

Lagarde was born in Paris as Christine Madeleine Odette Lallouette into a family of academics. Her father Robert Lallouette was a Professor of English at the Faculty of Rouen; her mother Nicole worked as a teacher. After graduation in 1974 at the Lycée François 1er in Le Havre, she went on an AFS scholarship to the Holton-Arms School, a girls' school in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Then she graduated from law school at Paris West University Nanterre La Défense, in Greater Paris, France, and obtained a Master's Degree in political science from the Institut d'études politiques d'Aix-en-Provence (Sciences Po Aix). Since 2010, she has presided over the Institute's board of directors.

Lagarde worked as an intern at the United States Capitol, as William Cohen's congressional assistant.

As a teenager, Lagarde was a member of the French national synchronised swimming team. She is divorced and has two sons, Pierre-Henri Lagarde (born 1986) and Thomas Lagarde (born 1988).^{[citation needed]} Since 2006, her partner has been the entrepreneur Xavier Giocanti from Marseille. She is a vegetarian and never drinks alcohol. Her hobbies are scuba diving, swimming and gardening.^{[citation needed]}

The fashion magazine Vogue profiled Lagarde in September 2011.

Professional career

Lagarde joined Baker & McKenzie, a large Chicago-based international law firm, in 1981. She handled major antitrust and labor cases, was made partner after six years and was named head of the firm in Western Europe. She joined the executive committee in 1995 and was elected the company's first ever female Chairman in October 1999. In 2004, Lagarde became president of the global strategic committee.

Her personal interest in European affairs led her to open the European Law Centre, an office of Baker & McKenzie in Brussels exclusively dedicated to the practice of European Union law.

Ministerial career

Lagarde at a UMP rally, 18 February 2011

As France's Trade Minister between 2005 and May 2007, Lagarde prioritized opening new markets for the country's products, focusing on the technology sector. On 18 May 2007, she was moved to the Ministry of Agriculture as part of the government of François Fillon. The following month she joined François Fillon's cabinet in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry and Employment to become the first woman to ever be in charge of economic policy in France.

On August 3, 2011, a French court ordered an investigation into Christine Lagarde's role in a €285 million arbitration deal in favour of Bernard Tapie.

International Monetary Fund

Administrative record

In May 2011, Lagarde was mentioned as a possible successor of Dominique Strauss-Kahn as managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Her candidacy received the support of the United States, Russian, Chinese, British, German and Indian governments.

On 25 May 2011, Lagarde officially announced her candidacy as head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn upon his resignation.

On 28 June 2011, the International Monetary Fund board elected Lagarde as its next managing director and chairman for a five-year term, starting on 5 July 2011. Agustín Carstens was also considered for the post. The IMF's executive board praised both candidates as well-qualified, but decided on Lagarde by consensus. Carstens would have been the first non-European to be elected as the head of the IMF. His candidacy was supported by the Latin American governments, as well as Spain, Canada and Australia.

Her appointment comes amidst the intensification of the European sovereign debt crisis especially in Greece, with fears looming of loan defaults. The United States in particular supported her expeditious appointment in light of the fragility of Europe's economic situation.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said that Lagarde's "exceptional talent and broad experience will provide invaluable leadership for this indispensable institution at a critical time for the global economy." Nicolas Sarkozy referred to Lagarde's appointment as "a victory for France." Oxfam, a charity working in developing nations, called the choice "farcical" and argued that what it saw as the lack of transparency in the appointment process hurt the IMF's credibility.

Viewpoints

Alistair Darling (left) with Lagarde and Timothy Geithner (right) in 2009.

In July 2010, Lagarde told the PBS NewsHour that the IMF lending project was "a very massive plan, totally unexpected, totally counter-treaty, because it wasn't scheduled in the treaty that we should do a bailout program, as we did." She also said, "we had essentially a trillion dollars on the table to confront any market attack that would target any country, whether it's Greece, Spain, Portugal, or anybody within the Eurozone." With respect to the French economy, she stated that besides short-term stimulus efforts: "we must, very decisively, cut our deficit and reduce our debt."

In public remarks made right after her appointment, Lagarde stated that both the IMF and EU require Greek austerity measures as a prerequisite for further aid. She said, "If I have one message tonight about Greece, it is to call on the Greek political opposition to support the party that is currently in power in a spirit of national unity." Lagarde's view of her predecessor is that: "The IMF has taken up the challenges of the crisis thanks to the actions of the director general Dominique Strauss-Kahn and to his team as well." On December 25, 2011, Lagarde argued that the world economy was at risk and urged Europeans to unify in terms of the debt crisis facing the continent.

Questioned about her economic philosophy, Lagarde has described herself as "with Adam Smith—that is, liberal."

Media

She was interviewed in the documentary film Inside Job (2010), which later won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Lagarde was portrayed by actress Laila Robins in the 2011 HBO movie Too Big to Fail, which was based on the popular book of the same name by New York Times journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin. Lagarde, acting as the French Finance Minister, has a scene criticizing her American counterpart Hank Paulson.

See also

• Baker & McKenzie

External links

• imfboss.org Tracking the fight to head the Fund
• Column archives at Project Syndicate
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Christine Lagarde on Charlie Rose
• Christine Lagarde at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Christine Lagarde in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Christine Lagarde collected news and commentary at Al Jazeera English
• Christine Lagarde collected news and commentary at The Guardian
• Christine Lagarde collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Christine Lagarde collected news and commentary at The Wall Street Journal
• Christine Lagarde at the Notable Names Database

Political offices
Preceded by Christian Jacob	Minister of Commerce and Industry 2005–2007	Position abolished
Preceded by Dominique Bussereau	Minister of Agriculture 2007	Succeeded by Michel Barnier
Preceded by Jean-Louis Borloo	Minister of Finance 2007–2011	Succeeded by François Baroin
Business positions
Preceded by Dominique Strauss-Kahn	Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund 2011–present	Incumbent