Biography | Kristalina Georgieva — The Executive Board That Selected Her at HQ1

On 25 September 2019 the IMF Executive Board selected Kristalina Georgieva as managing director. The term began on 1 October. The building is Headquarters 1, 700 19th Street NW, across the block from the World Bank complex she had just left. Press Release 19/351 is the primary record. She succeeded Christine Lagarde. The Board had opened the process on 26 July. Georgieva was the sole nominee. The same release states the fact that later headlines repeated: she was the first person from an emerging-market economy to lead the Fund since 1944. She was also the second woman in the chair. The managing director is chief of the operating staff and chair of the Board. In 2019 the Fund served 189 member countries with about 2,700 staff. Those figures are in the selection release, not later rounding. She came from next door. She had been World Bank CEO since January 2017 and interim World Bank Group president for ten weeks in early 2019. The walk from 1818 H Street to 700 19th Street is a few hundred metres. The change of mandate is larger than the map suggests. A five-year term starting 1 October 2019 was later renewed. Press Release 24/113 records the Board's selection, on 12 April 2024, of a second term beginning 1 October 2024. HQ1 is a public building with a visitors' entrance on 19th Street. It is not a private office and not a home. The pin marks the Board's decision, not a daily routine. Photo: International Monetary Fund, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Portrait: Friends of Europe, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.