Kristalina Georgieva

Georgieva committed the bank to gender equality within its own ranks by setting the target for women to occupy 50 percent of senior management positions at the World Bank by 2020. This was achieved ahead of time in October 2018.

On 7 January 2019 it was announced that World Bank Group President Kim would be stepping down and Georgieva would assume the role of interim president of the World Bank Group on 1 February 2019.

Since 2019, Georgieva has been co-chairing the World Economic Forum High-Level Group on Humanitarian Investing, alongside Børge Brende and Peter Maurer.

On 29 September 2019 Georgieva was named the next managing director of the International Monetary Fund, to succeed Christine Lagarde, who is leaving to become head of the European Central Bank (ECB). She was the only nominee for the job and is a first person from the emerging country to have this function. Normally, she would not be considered for the position (the tradition was that candidate could not be older than 65 at the start of their term), but following pressure from the French President Emmanuel Macron, the rule was waived for Georgieva.

Her term started on 1 October 2019 and will last for five years.

In 2019, Georgieva was awarded the Princess Marina Sturdza award in the Emerging Europe Remarkable Achievement Awards. In the same year Georgieva also received the Foreign Policy Association Medal which recognizes individuals who demonstrate responsible internationalism and work to expand public knowledge of international affairs. Past recipients include the Honorable Michael Bloomberg, mayor, New York City; Timothy Geithner, chairman, Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank; Kevin Rudd, prime minister, Australia; Sheila C. Bair, chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Anne-Marie Slaughter, dean, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, among others.

On 21 April 2018 it was announced the World Bank shareholders endorsed an ambitious package of measures that include a $13 billion paid-in capital increase, a series of internal reforms, and a set of policy measures that greatly strengthen the global poverty fighting institution's ability to scale up resources and deliver on its mission in areas of the world that need the most assistance. Georgieva is widely recognised as playing a key role in securing this increase, the largest funding increase in the bank's history.

In 2017, Georgieva was listed by UK-based company Richtopia at number 2 in the list of 100 Most Influential People in Multinational Organisations.

From 1993 to 2010, she served in a number of positions in the World Bank Group, eventually rising to become its vice president and corporate secretary in March 2008. She has also served as a member of the board of trustees and associated professor in the economics department of the University of National and World Economy in Bulgaria. On 27 September 2016, the Bulgarian government nominated Kristalina Georgieva for the post of United Nations Secretary-General. Her short run for secretary-general at the UN ended following a vote at the UN Security Council on 5 October, where Georgieva ranked number eight out of ten candidates. In the same vote, António Guterres got the support of the Security Council for the post of UN Secretary-General. On 28 October, the World Bank announced that Georgieva would become the first CEO of the bank starting on 2 January 2017. On 29 September 2019 Georgieva was named the next managing director of the International Monetary Fund. She was the only nominee for the job and is the first person from an emerging country to hold this office.

Georgieva was appointed the first chief executive officer for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association on 28 October 2016 and started in the role on 2 January 2017.

In May 2015, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Georgieva and Nazrin Shah of Perak as co-chairs of the High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing, an initiative aimed at preparing recommendations for the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit and paved the way for new development and humanitarian solutions, including through facilitating the ‘Grand Bargain’, an agreement between the biggest donors and aid providers, which aims to get more means into the hands of people in need.

Amid the Southeast Europe floods in May 2014, Georgieva coordinated post-disaster assistance and helped prepare Serbia's request for aid of as much as 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) a year.

In 2014, news media reported that the ambassadors of several Western EU countries early on indicated their countries’ support for Georgieva to be nominated for the incoming Juncker Commission, indicating that she might get the post of High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Her candidacy had been uncertain because of political infighting in Bulgaria. The collapse of the socialist government, however, cleared the path for her nomination. By August, Georgi Bliznashki, Bulgaria's interim prime minister, announced her candidacy to replace Britain's Catherine Ashton.

Incoming European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker instead assigned the post of Vice-President for Budget and Human Resources to Georgieva. She was thus the most senior technocrat in the Juncker Commission, the only one of the seven vice-presidents never to have served as a national minister. In this role she was in charge of 33,000 staff and reporting on how the budget of the European Union is spent to the European Parliament, the council and the European Court of Auditors. Within months of taking her new position and amid skepticism about the European Union and its budget of around $159 billion reaching new heights, Georgieva was able to negotiate a several-billion-dollar budget increase for 2014.

After taking office, Georgieva's presence in the field – in Haiti, Chile and Pakistan as a response to the natural disasters that have struck there; Sahel in relation to the ongoing food crisis threat; Darfur as a way to tackle a forgotten conflict; Kyrgyzstan as a reaction to a sudden onset conflict; disasters within the EU such as the 2010 Romanian floods, the Hungarian industrial accident at Ajka, Hungary – along with timely and effective response to these crises, natural and man-made disasters has led to increased EU visibility.

Georgieva was named "European of the Year" in 2010 and "EU Commissioner of the Year" as an acknowledgment of her work, in particular, her handling of the humanitarian disasters in Haiti and Pakistan.

In January 2010, Georgieva announced her intention to resign from this post in view of her nomination to the Commission of the European Union.

After the former Bulgarian nominee for the post of European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, Rumiana Jeleva, came under fire during her confirmation hearing from members of the European Parliament over both her competence and allegations of gaps in her declaration of financial interests, she withdrew her bid. The Bulgarian government then proposed Kristalina Georgieva as their new candidate. On 21 January 2010 the European Commission President José Manuel Barroso met with Georgieva and expressed his approval, stating that "Mrs. Georgieva has solid international experience and knowledge with which she is going to contribute significantly in her capacity as a EU Commissioner".

The confirmation hearing of Georgieva took place at the European Parliament on 4 February 2010. She faced questions on her suitability for the portfolio. Georgieva identified Haiti as a priority, especially the need to provide shelter and health services and to restore the functions and service of the government, so as to start work on reconstruction and long-term development. Other key issues raised in discussions with MEPs had been improving co-ordination within the EU (and within the commission), and between humanitarian and military players in order to meet the dual challenge posed by expanding needs and shrinking budgets. The need to improve the effectiveness of EU actions and for better response capacity had also been stressed, together with the establishment of European Voluntary Humanitarian Corps.

The second college of the Barroso Commission, including Georgieva, was approved by the European Parliament on 9 February 2010 by a vote of 488 to 137, with 72 abstentions, and she took office the following day.

Immediately after taking office, she took responsibility for coordinating the EU response to the humanitarian consequence of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. As result of her actions, the EU became the primary humanitarian donor in the devastated country. Following this initial baptism of fire, Georgieva has ensured EU's response in a number of crises and disasters that struck the world in 2010, including the earthquake in Chile and the floods in Pakistan.

As recognition of her work and her efficient reaction to the humanitarian crises of the year, Georgieva was named Commissioner of the Year in the "Europeans of the Year 2010" awards, organized by the influential European Voice newspaper, which also named her "European of the Year". The winners are chosen on the basis of online voting, which is open until 31 October of each year. In 2016, Georgieva was honored with the Devex Power with Purpose award for her work in global development.

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.

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. 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. She has written over 100 academic papers and has also authored a microeconomics textbook.

Kristalina Ivanova Georgieva-Kinova (Bulgarian: Кристалина Иванова Георгиева-Кинова ; born 13 August 1953) is a Bulgarian economist serving as Chairwoman and 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 2019 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.