Christine Lagarde has become the first female finance and economy minister of a G7 country following a ministerial reshuffle on Tuesday by Nicolas Sarkozy, French president.
Ms Lagarde, 51, a former agriculture and trade minister who previously ran the US law firm Baker & McKenzie, takes over from Jean-Louis Borloo, who assumes the role of”super-minister”responsible for the environment and energy. …
About a year ago Forbes ran this somewhat odd profile. In 2005, another Forbes profile said:
Lagarde, 49, is a force multiplier everywhere she goes. A decade ago, she was the first woman on Baker & McKenzie’s executive committee. Four years later, she became the first woman to head the committee. In the process she “nagged and teased” her partners into promoting more women into their ranks. During her five-year tenure as head of the law firm:one of the few women in the world to hit the legal big top:Lagarde championed the “client first” mentality, where lawyers anticipated clients’ needs rather than harped on their own credentials. Lagarde notes a difference in style between executive women and men: “We don’t take things as dramatically and as seriously as men do. Maybe it’s because we think things are more important in life than who you’re going to sit next to at some dinner.” An employment and antitrust specialist and former national team synchronized swimmer, Lagarde recently left the law firm to run France’s trade ministry and is now a cabinet minister. Lagarde has also been awarded France’s highest honor, the Legion d’Honneur.
