Gita Gopinath's journey from average 7th grader to IMF top brass

The 49-year-old, who is a child to Malayalee parents, went to school in Kolkata

The International Monetary Fund's first female chief economist has now been promoted to IMF’s First Deputy Managing Director, the organisation revealed on Thursday.

The Indian-American has a humble past, laced with much academic success over the years.

The 49-year-old, who is a child of Malayalee parents, went to school in Kolkata, according to Firstpost.

Read more: Gita Gopinath to take on new role at IMF as First Deputy Managing Director

Her father says that she was not always a great academic. He said that she was an 'average student' until class 7, keeping scores of 45%, according to DNA. She reportedly shot to brilliance later when she started scoring 90%.

Gopinath took up science at Mahajana PU college in Mysuru and also studied commerce at Delhi University's Lady Shri Ram College

For her PhD, she picked economics at Princeton University in 2001.

The IMF top boss has other talents too. Outside of academics, she has dabbled with the guitar and tried walking the ramp.

She had a stint with the University of Chicago as an assistant professor, following which she joined Harvard University.

During her historic time at Harvard, she became the first female tenured professor in the economics department in 2010 - also the first Indian to assume the role after Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.

Gopinath has also worked with the government in India. During her tenure between 2016 and 2018, she was an economic adviser to the CM of Kerala.

Her decorated career at the IMF includes major milestones including but not limited to the Pandemic Paper which she co-authored. The Pandemic Paper helped set global standards with respect to vaccination rates.

She had announced that she was parting ways with the fund earlier this year but is now set to replace Geoffrey Okamoto to assume the role of First Deputy Managing Director.

Check out the latest DH videos: