Christine Lagarde

French lawyer and politician, the Minister of Economic Affairs since 2007

Born to academic parents she is well-educated with a law degree and a master's in political science. As a teenager, she repesented France in synchronized swimming; as an adult, she retains a slim, athletic build.

In 1981 she joined the US-based international law firm of Baker and McKenzie. Rising through the ranks she became its Chair in 1999. In 2005 she was named France's Trade Minister, remaining in that post until 2007 when she became the country's first female financial minister.

She and her husband, from whom she is divorced, had two sons born in 1986 and 1988.

On May 25, 2011 she put her name in the ring to head the International Monetary Fund, succeeding Dominique Strauss-Kahn. She was elected to the position on June 28th and became the first woman to head the IMF when she assumed duties on July 5, 2011.

A month later, on August 4th, a French court ordered an investigation of her role in an arbitration settlement in which $4 million of taxpayer money were awarded to a controversial business tycoon, Bernard Tapie in 2008.