Christine Lagarde

She was France's finance minister from 2007 to 2011 and Managing Director of the IMF from 2011 to 2019. She was a member of the UMP. She is named among the possible contenders for the 2027 French presidential election.

Career

Lagarde studied at Paris Nanterre University and Sciences Po Aix. She worked at the law firm Baker & McKenzie from 1981 to 2005, chairing it from 1999 to 2004 as its first woman. She was Minister for Foreign Trade (2005-2007), Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries (2007) and Minister of Economics, Finance and Industry (2007-2011). She led the International Monetary Fund from 2011 to 2019, then became President of the European Central Bank.

Positions

Lagarde has described herself as liberal in the economic sense of Adam Smith. She was a member of the UMP from 2007 to 2011 and is linked to the European People's Party. As a central banker she holds no party post.

Controversies

In December 2016 the Court of Justice of the Republic found her guilty of negligence as finance minister over the 403 million euro arbitration payout to businessman Bernard Tapie in 2008. It imposed no penalty and no criminal record. It found her negligence had allowed others to misappropriate funds, and civil courts later ruled the arbitration fraudulent.

Summarised automatically from the linked sources. Wikipedia · Fox News (AP)