Lagarde, center, at a meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Tokyo. She has led the IMF since 2011.
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For now, Lagarde seems happiest when squeezing in meetings about women's empowerment whenever she can. At one recent appearance at the ECB in Frankfurt, hundreds of women jam into a small wood-paneled auditorium, waiting to hear her views on smashing the glass ceiling. They erupt in wild applause when Lagarde enters, and she is in turn exhilarated, in contrast to her more studied demeanor in front of the German bankers. She laughs when I make the comparison. "I'd be lying to you if I said I was passionate talking about the E.U. banking union," she says. "But it is very important."