Christine Lagarde

Christine Lagarde is the President of the European Central Bank. Prior to this she was the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Having served her first five-year term, she was re-appointed in July 2016 for a second term. A national of France, she was previously French Finance Minister from June 2007 to July 2011, and had also served as France’s Minister of State for Foreign Trade for two years.

Ms. Lagarde also has had an extensive and noteworthy career as an anti-trust and labour lawyer, serving as a partner with the international law firm of Baker & McKenzie, where the partnership elected her as chairman in October 1999. She held the top post at the firm until June 2005 when she was named to her initial ministerial post in France. Ms. Lagarde has degrees from Institute of Political Sciences (IEP) and from the Law School of Paris X University, where she also lectured prior to joining Baker & McKenzie in 1981.