Hillary Clinton & Christine Lagarde team up at Women in the World

NEW YORK, March 10, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde are joining Tina Brown's fifth annual Women in the World Summit.  They will engage in a conversation together at Lincoln Center opening night, Thursday, April 3, moderated by Thomas L. Friedman of The New York Times.

Tina Brown, founder of Women in the World, said: "We are thrilled to bring this historic and stimulating dialogue to Women in the World this year. Secretary Clinton and Madame Lagarde are the leading examples of women breaking gender barriers with every move they make." Both have appeared independently before at the summit.

Hillary Rodham Clinton served as the 67th U.S. Secretary of State from 2009 until 2013, after nearly four decades in public service. Her "smart power" approach to foreign policy repositioned American diplomacy and development for the 21st century. Clinton played a central role in restoring America's standing in the world, reasserting the United States as a Pacific power, imposing crippling sanctions on Iran and North Korea, responding to the Arab Awakening, and negotiating a ceasefire in the Middle East.  Earlier, as first lady and senator from New York, she traveled to more than 80 countries as a champion of human rights, democracy, and opportunities for women and girls. Clinton also worked to provide health care to millions of children, create jobs and opportunity, and support first responders who risked their lives at Ground Zero. In her historic campaign for president, Clinton won 18 million votes. Today, Ms. Clinton continues to build on the nonprofit work she began nearly four decades ago through the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, including her latest initiative, No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project, which brings together partner organizations – international institutions, governments, businesses, NGOs, and others – to accelerate full participation for women and girls in the 21st Century.

Christine Lagarde, a French national, is the Managing Director of the IMF, the first woman to lead the 188-nation financial organization. She also was the first woman to become chairman of the international law firm Baker and McKenzie, and the first woman to hold the post of Finance and Economy Minister of a G-7 country. In her latter capacity, she chaired the ECOFIN Council, which brings together Economics and Finance Ministers of the European Union. As a member of the G-20, Ms Lagarde played a key role in the Group's management of the financial crisis, and as Chairman of the G-20 in 2011, she launched a wide-ranging work agenda on the reform of the international monetary system. She was named Officier in the Légion d'honneur in April 2012. Under Ms Lagarde's leadership, the IMF has been at the forefront of the response to the global economic crisis. Since she joined, the IMF has placed greater emphasis on the role of women as drivers of economic growth. In the IMF's Finance & Development  issue on Women at Work, she wrote: "Our future depends on a fundamentally different worldview that we can achieve only by fully including both men and women. The values, voice, and contributions of women can make a world of difference. Put simply, we cannot afford not to dare the difference."

Other confirmed participants for this year's Women in the World Summit include: Ambassador Samantha Power, Rashida Jones, Laurene Powell Jobs, Diane von Furstenberg, Ambassador Melanne Verveer, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator Susan Collins, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Sarah Silverman and many more.

The fifth annual Women in the World Summit runs April 3rd – 5th at Lincoln Center. Tickets are available here: http://davidhkochtheater.com/moreinfoWITW.html?sp

Women in the World will be live-streamed on thedailybeast.com

SOURCE Tina Brown Live Media and Women in the World