Press Release: IMF Executive Board Selects Christine Lagarde as Managing Director

IMF News, June 28, 2011

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Canonical URL: Press Release: IMF Executive Board Selects Christine Lagarde as Managing Director

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) selected Christine Lagarde to serve as IMF Managing Director and Madame Chairman of the Executive Board.
Term: a five-year term starting on July 5, 2011.
Ms. Lagarde succeeds Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Ms. Lagarde is the first woman named to the top IMF post since the institution’s inception in 1944.

Selection process initiated by the Executive Board on May 20, 2011 (see Press Release No. 11/191).
The Board agreed to meet with two candidates: Mr. Agustín Carstens and Ms. Lagarde.
Candidates met bilaterally with Executive Directors, as well as the Executive Board, during June 20-23, 2011.
The 24-member Executive Board, representing the IMF’s 187 member countries, concluded the selection by consensus after considering the candidate profile and all relevant information on the candidacies.

The Managing Director is the chief of the IMF’s operating staff and Chairman of the Executive Board.
The chief executive is assisted by three Deputy Managing Directors in the operation of the Fund.
Institutional scale: serves 187 member countries through about 2,700 staff from more than 140 countries.

Age: 55.
Nationality: France.
Government positions:
- Minister of Finance of France since June 2007.
- Prior: France’s Minister for Foreign Trade for two years.
Legal career:
- Extensive career as an anti-trust and labor lawyer.
- Partner with the international law firm of Baker & McKenzie.
- Elected chairman of Baker & McKenzie in October 1999; held the top post until June 2005.
Education and academia:
- Degrees from Institute of Political Studies (IEP) and from the Law School of Paris X University.
- Lectured at Paris X University prior to joining Baker & McKenzie in 1981.

For additional background on the Managing Director Selection Process, see: http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/mdsp.htm

Press Release No. 11/259 — IMF, June 28, 2011.