April 25, 2026

Kristalina Georgieva

14 minutes

Kristalina Georgieva is not like previous heads of the International Monetary Fund. She grew up behind the Iron Curtain in Bulgaria, which was then part of the Soviet bloc.

Born in Sofia in 1953, her father was a civil engineer and her mother a shopkeeper. Life was tough because her family weren't part of the Communist Party regime. Her father fell ill when Kristalina was young and she was just fifteen when she went to work at the local food market.

She studied economics at the then Karl Marx Higher Economic Institute and then in the late 1980s she headed to London to spend a year at the London School of Economics. Over the last 30 years she's landed top jobs at the World Bank and the European Commission. In 2019, she was appointed managing director of the IMF, becoming the first person from an emerging economy to lead the institution.

In the rare moments when she's not working, friends, colleagues and family paint a picture of a fun-loving woman who likes nothing better than dancing and singing.

Becky Milligan explores Kristalina's life and career.

Contributors

Dessislava Kinova - daughter

Iliyana Tsanova - friend and Chief Risk Officer at the European Commission

Lord Nick Stern - friend and environmental economist

Lord Mark Malloch Brown - friend and former World Bank Vice President

Ivan Krastev - friend and political scientist

Galia Mintcheva - special adviser