Christine Lagarde - 2012 TIME 100: The Most Influential People in the World - TIME Christine Lagarde is the first woman ever to become managing director of the International Monetary Fund, but she was also the most qualified European candidate for the job. As France's Finance Minister during the global financial crisis, she helped lead her country's and the euro zone's policy response. This was a training by fire for the IMF job. She has shown fearless leadership in prodding the European Union to restructure Greece's debt, calling on the euro-zone nations to clean up European banks and nudging China and other emerging economies to contribute more to IMF resources. In a few years Lagarde, 56, could run for the French presidency and thus become the first female President of that country. She is indeed a woman of many firsts. Roubini is an American economist who teaches at New York University's Stern School of Business