Leadership

Christine Lagarde

Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde is a French lawyer and Union for a Popular Movement politician

who has been the Managing Director (MD) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since 5 July

2011. A national of France, she was previously French Finance Minister from June 2007, and had also

served as France’s Minister for Foreign Trade for two years. Christine Lagarde has been nominated

unchallenged for a second term as chief of the International Monetary Fund. International Monetary

Fund serves as economic advisor and backstop for 188 countries. As a member of the G-20, Christine

Lagarde was involved in the Group's management of the financial crisis, helping to foster

international policies related to financial supervision and regulation and to strengthen global

economic governance. As Chairman of the G-20 when France took over its presidency for the year

2011, she launched a wide-ranging work agenda on the reform of the international monetary

system. In 2014, Lagarde was ranked the 5th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes

magazine.

Lagarde has been involved in a couple of controversies through her career as a politician and as the

Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund.

Christine Lagarde faced controversy after French judges said she appeared to be "personally"

involved in a decision to approve a pay out to a friend of Nicolas Sarkozy when she was the finance

minister. The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, has been charged with

"simple negligence" over her handling of a controversial €400m pay out to French business tycoon

Bernard Tapie. Lagarde announced that she had been placed under investigation by a magistrate on

Tuesday – the French equivalent of being charged in the UK – after being questioned for 15 hours at

the court of justice in Paris, which deals with cases of alleged ministerial wrongdoing.

Lagarde had earlier been questioned only as an...