Born in Paris in 1956, Christine Lagarde completed high school in Le Havre and attended Holton Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland. She graduated from law school at University Paris X and obtained a Master’s degree from the Political Science Institute in Aix en Provence. After being admitted as a lawyer to the Paris Bar, Madame Lagarde joined the international law firm of Baker & McKenzie as an associate, specializing in labor, anti-trust, and mergers and acquisitions. A member of the Executive Committee of the Firm in 1995, she became the Chairman of the Global Executive Committee of Baker & McKenzie in 1999 and later, Chairman of the Global Strategic Committee in 2004.
Madame Lagarde joined the French government in June 2005 as Minister for Foreign Trade. After brief service as Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, she became in June 2007 the first woman to hold the post of Finance and Economy Minister of a G-7 country. From July to December 2008, she also chaired the ECOFIN Council, which brings together Economics and Finance Ministers of the European Union.
As a member of the G-20, Madame 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 July 2011, Madame Lagarde became the eleventh Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the first woman to hold that position. She was named Officier in the Légion d’honneur in April 2012.
A former member of the French national team for synchronized swimming, Christine Lagarde is the mother of two sons.
