PersonReviewed 2026-10-23

Kristalina Georgieva

Kristalina Georgieva began serving as IMF Managing Director in October 2019.

PROFILE / FACT FILE

Personal and professional profile

Name: Kristalina Georgieva [1]
Birth date: 1953-08-13 [2]
Birthplace: Sofia [2]
Education: University of National and World Economy [2]
Professional field: International finance [1]
Fields / occupation: politician; economist; chief executive officer; university teacher [2]
Institutions in career record: Sofia University [2]

Research, education and career background

Kristalina Ivanova Georgieva-Kinova (Bulgarian: Кристалина Иванова Георгиева-Кинова; née Georgieva; born 13 August 1953) is a Bulgarian economist who has served as the 12th managing director of the International Monetary Fund since 2019. She is the first person from an emerging market economy to lead the institution. [3]

Serving as European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid, and Crisis Response from 2010 to 2014, Georgieva directed EU resources to aid those affected by crises including the 2010 Haiti earthquake. As vice-president of the European Commission for Budget and Human Resources from 2014 to 2016, she managed the EU's budget and staff through the aftermath of the Eurozone debt crisis and during the 2015 refugee crisis. [3]

As the first chief executive officer of the World Bank from 2017 to 2019, Georgieva led significant reforms and secured the largest funding increase in the Bank's history, totaling $13 billion. She also served as Acting President of the World Bank Group in 2019. At the IMF, Georgieva helped steer the global economy through the COVID-19 pandemic, providing $1 trillion in liquidity and reserves, integrating climate considerations into IMF policies, and increasing financial and policy support to vulnerable countries. She was reappointed for a second term in 2024. [3]

In 2021, during her tenure at the World Bank Group, an independent inquiry led by former US Attorney Ronald Machen and the law firm WilmerHale found she manipulated the World Bank's Doing Business report by instructing staff to alter data to inflate the rankings for China and Saudi Arabia. Her leadership of the IMF has also been criticized for being pro-authoritarian and providing forecasts of economic growth in Russia based on cherry-picked economic statistic releases following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [3]

Selected introductory text by Wikipedia contributors — Kristalina Georgieva, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Official facts are cited separately.

Professional role and career

The IMF Executive Board appointed her for a second term that began in October 2024. The official biography documents her international public-sector career. [1]

Source-supported connections

Kristalina Georgieva → Managing Director; term began 2024 → International Monetary Fund [1]

Frequently asked questions

When did Kristalina Georgieva’s second IMF term begin?

Her second term as IMF Managing Director began on October 1, 2024. [1]

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