2. Christine Lagarde
Christine Lagarde
Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
Last year's rank: New

The first woman to lead the IMF in its 60-year history, Lagarde assumed control at a perilous moment -- and we're not just talking about the ouster of predecessor Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The former French finance minister was thrust into negotiations over how to reverse the deepening European debt crisis, which she's tackling by calling on central bankers to launch a bold, coordinated push to juice short-term job creation and tackle long-term budget deficits.


Last updated September 29 2011: 3:11 PM ET
Join the Conversation
The power 50

The full list of Fortune's annual ranking of America's leading businesswomen.

Most Popular
 
 
 
 
 

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.