Tuesday, 7 May 2013
Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde born 1 January 1956 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. Previously, she held various ministerial posts in the French government: she was Minister of Economic Affairs, Finances and Industry and before that Minister of Agriculture and Fishing and Minister of Trade in the government of Dominique de Villepin. Lagarde was the first woman ever to become finance minister of a G8 economy, and is the first woman to ever head the IMF.
Lagarde was born in Paris, France into a family of academics. Her father Robert Lallouette was a Professor of English; her mother Nicole was a Latin teacher.
As a teenager, Lagarde was a member of the French national synchronised swimming team. After her baccalauréat in 1973, she went on an American Field Service scholarship to the Holton-Arms School for girls in Bethesda, Maryland. During her year in America, Lagarde worked as an intern at the United States Capitol, as Representative William Cohen's congressional assistant, helping him correspond with his French-speaking constituents during the Watergate hearings. She graduated from law school at Paris West University Nanterre La Défense, and obtained a Master's degree in English and labor law from the Institut d'études politiques d'Aix-en-Provence. Since 2010, she has presided over the Institute's board of directors.
Lagarde is twice divorced and has two sons, Pierre-Henri Lagarde (born 1986) and Thomas Lagarde (born 1988). Since 2006, her partner has been the entrepreneur Xavier Giocanti from Marseille. She is a vegetarian and very rarely drinks alcohol. Her hobbies include regular trips to the gym, cycling and swimming.
