06 Christine Lagarde

Finance (France)

Christine Lagarde is a French lawyer and politician who was the first woman to serve as France’s Finance Minister (2007–11), as the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF; 2011–19), and as President of the European Central Bank (2019– current). She currently oversees the European Central Bank—a role previously dominated by male academic economists. In 2022, with inflation at a record high in the eurozone, Lagarde faced one of her most demanding challenges: stabilizing price rises amid a war in the Frankfurt-based central bank’s backyard. Yet, she rose victorious and has done well to stabilize the economy and manage rising inflation rates in the European continent.