Dominique Strauss-Kahn (En) life and biography

Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn aka DSK is a French economist, lawyer, and politician, and a member of the Socialist Party of France (PS). He became the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 28 September 2007, with the backing of his country's president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn assumed office as the tenth Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund on November 1, 2007. Upon being selected by the IMF's Board of Executive Directors, Mr. Strauss-Kahn indicated that he will press ahead with reform of the 185-member country institution that helps oversee the global economy.

Prior to taking up his position at the IMF, Mr. Strauss-Kahn was a member of the French National Assembly and Professor of Economics at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. From 2001 to 2007, he was reelected three times to the National Assembly, and in 2006, he ran for the Socialist Party's nomination for the French presidential election. In 2000 and 2001, he taught economics at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris and was named visiting professor at Stanford University. He was also a personal advisor to the Secretary General of the OECD.

Earlier, Mr. Strauss-Kahn served as Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry of France from June 1997 to November 1999. In this capacity, he managed the launch of the Euro. He also represented France on the Board of Governors of a number of international financial institutions, including the IMF.

Between 1993 and 1997, he was in the private sector as a corporate lawyer. From 1991 to 1993, Mr. Strauss-Kahn served as Minister of Industry and International Trade, during which time he participated in the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn began his career as assistant professor, then professor of economics at the University of Paris where he was tenured in 1978. He was then appointed Deputy Commissioner of the Economic Planning Agency (1981-1986). He was elected Deputy (Member of Parliament) to the National Assembly (1986), where he chaired the Finance Commission from 1988 to 1991.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn holds a PhD in economics from the University of Paris. He also graduated in law, in business administration, in political studies, and in statistics. As an academic, his research fields include household saving behavior, public finance, and social policy.

In 2007, Tristane Banon, a French journalist and writer, accused Strauss-Kahn of attempting to rape her in 2002, but she did not press charges. In 2008, an independent investigator was appointed following allegations that Strauss-Kahn had had an affair with a subordinate, whom he later made redundant and assisted in getting a new job. Three charges were proven over an affair with economist Piroska Nagy, who was married at the time to Mario Blejer.

On 14 May 2011, police officers removed Strauss-Kahn from an Air France plane at New York's JFK airport moments before takeoff to Paris, and arrested him for allegedly sexually assaulting a hotel maid in his suite at the midtown Sofitel New York Hotel shortly before leaving for the airport. He was held at a police precinct overnight. According to Reuters, the NYPD anticipates that he is to be charged with "a criminal sexual act, attempted rape, and unlawful imprisonment". Strauss-Kahn denied all the charges against him, pleaded not guilty, and agreed to a forensic examination.[

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