30 Mind-Blowing Facts Everyone Should Know About Christine Lagarde

26 December 2018, 3:43 pm EST By Ruby Karnick

Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde, a French lawyer and politician, has served in various senior ministerial posts in the French Government and is ranked at #3 on the Forbes' list of World's 100 Most Powerful Women. Here are some interesting facts about Managing Director and Chairwomen of the International Monetary Fund:

Christine Lagarde is the first women to take the helm of the International Monetary Fund. She is intellect, enthusiastic with dogged stamina in her 5ft 10in slim frame
Lagarde is the eldest of four children to Robert Lallouette, professor of English and Nicole, Teacher of French and Greek literature.
She lost her father who died of Motor neuron disease when she was 17 years of age. She was raised by her mother and grandmother.
Born Christine Lallouette, on January 01, 1956, in Paris, she completed high school in La Havre and attended Holton Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. She then graduated from law school at University Paris Nanterre Le Defense, and Matser’s degree from the political science in Aix en Province.
In May 1968, when French schools were shut down due to student uprising, Lagarde took up synchronized swimming and went on to win a bronze medal in the national championship. She was also a member of French national team.
During her year at Holton-Arms as an American Field Service exchange student program, she joined Bill Atkins family. She was allowed to smoke only in her bedroom and missed plentiful supply of yogurt. She hated the local tap water so much she was forced to violate the family’s one soda per day rule.
At Holton-Arms School, she joined dance troupe and took courses in history, English and math. She disliked the subject so much that she wrote in her yearbook testimonial, ‘please, no math,’ and ended up with career involving numbers.
She had worked as interns at the U.S. Capitol as Representative William Cohen’s congressional assistant, helping him correspond with French speakers during Watergate hearing.
In 1981, Lagarde joined the Chicago based international law firm, Baker & McKenzie. Six years later she was made a partner and was later made head of the firm in Western Europe.
As a member of the Executive Committee of the firm in 1995, she became its Chairman of the Global Executive Committee in 1999. Subsequently she was elevated to Chairman of the Global Strategic Committee in 2004.

In June 2005, she received a call from Paris, to join the French Government, as Minister for Foreign Trade. In her excitement and haste she left her reading glasses behind and was forced to squint a lot for few days at office.
On May 18, 2007, she was appointed the Agriculture Minister and in the following month was moved to Ministry of External Affairs, Finance and Employment.
She is the first women to hold the post of Finance and Economics Minister of a G-7 country. For about six months, she also chaired the Economic and Financial Affairs Council of the European Union.
She was never elected to political office and was appointed from law firm to Dominique de Villepin’s government without being Member of Parliament. After some initial public relation blunder, she grew in stature and now considered one of Sarkozy’s most competent and charismatic ministers.
On July 05, 2011, Lagarde became the eleventh Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, and first women to hold that position. Since taking over I.M.F, she has grappled with Eurozone debt crises, including Greece.
While describing the interview process at the I.M.F, she said it is more of speed-dating than high finance. She said imagine a room with 24 men and you’re the only women and expected to meet each of them separately, 20 minutes each and then five in-between time.
The ‘Oxfam,’ a charitable organization, called the appointment process farcical, which lacked transparency and has hurt the IMF’s credibility. They called for public release of the Lagarde’s interview with the IMF board.
In 2010, a controversial ‘Lagarde List’ containing the names of 1991 Greeks customers who were potential tax avoiders with bank accounts at HSBC’S Geneva branch, washanded over to Greek government. The list also contains names of officials in the finance ministry which was in center of crisis was leaked to the Greece media.
Lagarde has repeatedly ruled herself out of race for the coveted post to lead either European Commission or the European Central Bank. She said she was a ‘bit annoyed and fed up’ with frenzied speculation.
In December 2016, Lagarde was found guilty of negligence in approving a massive payout of taxpayers money, but decided not punish and that the conviction would not constitute a criminal record. As a French finance minister in 2008, she approved an award of €404m to businessman Bernard Tapie for the disputed sale of a firm.

In an interview in May 2012, asked about crisis stricken Greece, she drily replied that Greek had ‘had a nice time’ but now it is payback time. This response provoked controversy from the Greece government and public of having insulted the Greek people.
In January 2015, while paying tribute to deceased King Abdullah of South Arabia, Lagarde said ‘he was a strong advocate of women’s rights.’ Her comment irked many human rights campaigners, who said his reign failed to secure fundamental rights of free expression, association and assembly for women.
Lagarde was interviewed in the American documentary film ‘Inside Job’ dealing with late-2000 financial crisis, won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature film for 2010.
The fashion magazine Vogue, profiled her ‘ChristineLagarde: Changing of the Guard,’ in September 2011.
She has been married twice, twice divorced, and has two sons. Her current partner is a Marseilles businessman named Xavier Giocanti with who makes a visit for a week every month.
According to the latest 2018 list of ‘Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women,’ Lagarde, is listed third only behind German Chancellor, Angela Merkel and U.K. Prime Minister, Theresa May.
According to list of UK based company ‘Richtopia,’ Lagarde, was ranked # 1 in the list of ‘100 Most Influential People in Multinational Organizations’ in 2017.
In the 2011, American biographical drama television film, ‘Too Big to Fail’ about the financial System, Lagarde was portrayed by actress Laila Robins, as French Finance Minister.
On October 29, 2012, the University of ‘KU Leuven’ awarded Lagarde the honorary doctorate in recognition of her strong leadership, exceptional, legal and macroeconomic vision. She also received honorary doctorate from ‘University de Montreal,’ in 2014.
A health conscious vegetarian who rarely drinks alcohol. Her hobbies include regular trip to the gym, cycling and swimming. On April 06, 2012, she was named ‘Officer in the Legion d’ honneur’.