A figurehead among French economists, the chief economist of the OECD since 2018 had been promoted to deputy secretary general of the organization in January.

Until October 2016, she had played the role of President François Hollande's sherpa on European issues, assuming the role of a woman in the shadows who negotiates agreements with her European counterparts.

She had distinguished herself for her support for keeping Greece in the euro zone, her participation in the 2015 G20 or her work on the financing of COP21.

In April 2016, after leaving the Élysée, she returned to her position on the board of directors of the luxury group Kering, until her appointment to the OECD.

In 2020 in the midst of a health crisis, she was noticed by Emmanuel Macron during a meeting with several economists for having made "a very structured presentation, respecting the time allotted to her", unlike others who told her succeeded thereafter, according to a source at the Élysée who underlined this quality at home "of never leaving the nails".

Aged 53, Laurence Boone has forged the reputation of "going straight to the point", we underline at Bercy.

She and Emmanuel Macron have known each other for a long time.

She had succeeded him at the Élysée in the summer of 2014 as economic adviser when he left office before being appointed Minister of the Economy.

Both went through an investment bank, Mr. Macron at Rothschild and Ms. Boone at the American Bank of America-Merryll Lynch, where she led economic research on Europe, after having held a similar position within of Barclays Bank.

– “Less bourgeois” style than Lagarde –

With her international experience and her perfect command of English, acquired in London during her doctorate at the London Business School, she is reminiscent of Christine Lagarde, the current President of the ECB, "but in a less bourgeois style", comments a source.

The Secretary General of the OECD the Australian Mathias Cormann and Laurence Boone, at the headquarters of the organization in Paris, June 8, 2022 Eric PIERMONT AFP

During confinement, she made her first appearances in the spotlight to talk about the crisis.

She was the guest of Yann Barthes' Quotidien primetime program on TMC, like another chief economist, that of the IMF Gita Gopinath, who offered herself Jimmy Fallon's set in the United States. .

Laurence Boone is part of the female wave that has swept over economic institutions in recent years, with in particular the appointment of Ms. Lagarde as head of the ECB, after that of the IMF.

"It is progress that women are appointed to the positions of chief economists of major international or national organisations," she said when she was appointed to the OECD.

But last year, she told AFP that male economists have published "two to three times as many" scientific papers during the pandemic, showing that there is "still a lot of work to be done to promote equality between men and women.

As soon as she took office at the OECD, she repeatedly called on governments to avoid an escalation in the trade war in the face of the risks of penalizing growth which threatened to slow down if the United States, China or the EU imposed high customs duties on imports.

It has also repeatedly encouraged European countries with fiscal space to invest more in infrastructure.

Last month, she warned in the introduction to the latest OECD economic forecasts that "the world will pay a heavy price for Russia's war against Ukraine".

Laurence Boone is a mother of two children.

© 2022 AFP