The former lawyer was the first woman to serve as finance minister from any Group of Seven nation and then the first to lead the International Monetary Fund.
But as she prepares for an eight-year term leading the ECB in November, she will be in a familiar place as trailblazer at a difficult time, accustomed to being the only woman in the room. “Greater emphasis on women in organizations leads to better governance and decision-making. I maintain that women have a different approach to risk than men,” she told Elle magazine earlier this year.
But one former IMF official, said her leadership of the fund, with its 189 members, makes her “is exceptionally qualified” to run the ECB. Born to middle-class teacher parents, she went to school in the northern port city of Le Havre and at a prestigious girls boarding school outside of Washington before going on to study at universities in France.“Christine Lagarde can take credit for bequeathing an IMF that has become the premier international financial institution,” said Masood Ahmed, a former IMF official who now leads the Center for Global Development, an anti-poverty think tank.