Kristalina Georgieva
Kristalina Ivanova Georgieva-Kinova (Bulgarian: Кристалина Иванова Георгиева-Кинова; née Georgieva; born 13 August 1953)[1] is a Bulgarian economist serving as the 12th managing director of the International Monetary Fund since 2019. She was the Chief Executive of the World Bank Group from 2017 to 2019 and served as Acting President of the World Bank Group from 1 February to 8 April 2019 following the resignation of Jim Yong Kim. She previously served as Vice-President of the European Commission under Jean-Claude Juncker from 2014 to 2016.
Not to be confused with Kristina Georgieva.
Kristalina Georgieva
Position established
Anshula Kant (managing director)
11 European Commissioners
8 European Commissioners
Jean-Claude Juncker
Kino Kinov
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Early life and education[edit]
Georgieva was born in Sofia into a family of bureaucrats.[2] Her father was a civil engineer who supervised state road-building projects,[3] and her grandfather was a prominent Bulgarian revolutionary, Ivan Karshovski.[4]
Georgieva holds a PhD in Economics and an MA in Political Economy and Sociology from the Karl Marx Higher Institute of Economics (now called University of National and World Economy) in Sofia.[5][6] Her thesis was on "Environmental Protection Policy and Economic Growth in the USA". She also did postgraduate research and studies in natural resource economics and environmental policy at the London School of Economics in the late 1980s and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[7] She has written over 100 academic papers and has also authored a microeconomics textbook.[8]
Georgieva is fluent in Bulgarian, English, and Russian, and also speaks some French.[9]
She held a range of academic and consulting positions in Bulgaria and the US, and has made presentations at the Australian National University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tsinghua University, Yale University, Harvard University, London School of Economics, and the University of the South Pacific.[10]
Early work (1993–2010)[edit]
Georgieva started her career at the World Bank Group in 1993 as an environmental economist for Europe and Central Asia. Following this, she served in various positions in the bank ultimately rising to become director of the Environment Department in charge of World Bank's environmental strategy, policies, and lending. In this role she oversaw around 60% of lending operations of the World Bank Group. From 2004 to 2007 she was the institution's director and resident representative in the Russian Federation, based in Moscow.
She returned to Washington, D.C., to become director of Strategy and Operations, Sustainable Development. Her final position at the World Bank, vice president and corporate secretary, conveyed lead responsibility for liaison with the members of the institution's board of executive directors, representing the bank's shareholders (the member country governments).[9] During that time, she worked on the bank's governance reform and accompanying capital increase.[11] In January 2010, Georgieva announced her intention to resign from this post in view of her nomination to the Commission of the European Union.[12]
International Monetary Fund[edit]
On 29 September 2019, Georgieva was named the next managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to succeed Christine Lagarde (who was leaving to become the head of the European Central Bank's executive board). She was the only candidate for the job, and is the first person from an emerging economy to serve in the position.[35] IMF tradition was that candidates could not be older than 65 at the start of their term, but following pressure from French President Emmanuel Macron, the rule was waived for Georgieva.[35]
Georgieva's 5-year term began on 1 October 2019. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, she joined the Multilateral Leaders Task Force on COVID-19 Vaccines, Therapeutics, and Diagnostics for Developing Countries, co-chaired by Tedros Adhanom and David Malpass, in July 2021.[40]
On 12 April 2024, Georgieva was reappointed by the IMF executive board to serve for a second five-year term. She was the sole candidate.[41][42]
Recognition[edit]
In 2016, Georgieva was honored with the Devex Power with Purpose award for her work in global development.[51] In 2017, Georgieva was listed by UK-based company Richtopia at number 2 in the list of 100 Most Influential People in Multinational Organisations.[52] She has been awarded the Princess Marina Sturdza award,[53] and the Foreign Policy Association Medal.[54] In 2020, Georgieva was named on Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.[55] In 2022, Kristalina was awarded by Forbes as one of the 50 over 50 women leading the way throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa.[56]