Rodrigo de Rato
Senior Managing Director, Lazard
Rodrigo de Rato Figaredo served as managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from June 2004 until October 2007. Prior to the IMF, he was vice-president for Economic Affairs and minister of Economy for the government of Spain, a post to which he was appointed in 1996. During that time he also was governor for Spain, and served on the Boards of Governors of the IMF, the World Bank, the Intra-American Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He regularly attended the European Union’s Economics and Finance Ministers meetings, and represented the EU at the Group of Seven Finance Ministers meeting in 2002. He was a member of Spain’s parliament from 1982 to 2004.
In February 2008 he joined Lazard as Senior Managing Director of Investment Banking. He has recently been appointed member of the Banco de Santander International Advisory Board and Chairman of the Advisory Board at Criteria Caixa Corp.
Rodrigo de Rato received a law degree at the Complutense University, an MBA at the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business and a PhD in Economics at the University of Madrid.
