Christine Lagarde faces the fight of her life

This story originally appeared in Maclean’s.

Christine Lagarde can’t move for being mobbed. The moment she rises from her patio table at a Chinese resort hotel, she finds her path blocked by a dozen young men and women dressed in black uniforms. They are the kitchen staff of the resort in Hangzhou where she just has spent the previous few days attending the G20 summit and they want a photo with the managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Lagarde, 60, gathers them around her and obliges.

As she makes her way to the motorcade waiting to whisk her to the airport, she stops to take a photo of a small lake. Mistake. More black-clad staffers come running for more pictures of the woman—a mere public official, mind—who has 5.9 million followers on the Chinese social media site Weibo, slightly more than footballer David Beckham and six times the number who follow Apple Inc. chief executive Tim Cook.

Hotel reception now, and another group shot. Finally, Lagarde gets into the backseat of her car and departs for her next destination, Laos, but not before another throng of young workers from the hotel crowd the steps to wave goodbye—and take more photos.

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Earlier this year, Lagarde appeared on Time magazine’s annual list of the world’s 100 most influential people for the fourth time, matching the records of former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and philanthropist Bill Gates, one of the world’s richest people. Her reappointment as managing director was unopposed in February, solidifying her authority over an institution that counts 189 countries as members. As the designated lender-of-last resort for the world, Lagarde has at her disposal more than $1 trillion to help get bankrupt countries out of trouble. The list of women who wield more influence is a short one.

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Lagarde has no formal training in economics and finance. She was practising law when she was recruited to join the government of Jacques Chirac as trade minister in 2005. Lagarde shone in the all-hours negotiating sessions that went on as the world’s leading financial powers battled the fallout from the collapse of American investment bank Lehman Brothers in the autumn of 2008. When the job at the IMF unexpectedly became vacant in 2011 with Greece and other European countries on the brink, German Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted Lagarde should get the job. Many were skeptical that a non-economist could manage an institution full of them. There have been slips, but for the most part Lagarde has exceeded all expectations, pushing the IMF in entirely new directions and re-establishing its place at the centre of global financial system. “She has an extraordinary ability to distill complex issues into their essence and arcane subjects into everyday language,” says Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England. “When combined with her fearsome intellect and deft diplomatic skills, she consistently forges consensus out of discord.”

Read the full story at Maclean’s.

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