28 Facts About Rodrigo Rato

Rodrigo de Rato y Figaredo was born on 18 March 1949 and is a businessman and politician who served in the Council of Ministers of Spain from 1996 to 2004.

Rodrigo Rato served as the ninth managing director of the International Monetary Fund from 2004 to 2007 and the president of Bankia from 2010 to 2012.

Rodrigo Rato's case was still awaiting trial a year later when his name appeared in the Panama Papers.

In September 2018, the sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Spain, and Rodrigo Rato entered prison on 25 October 2018.

Rodrigo de Rato was born in Madrid, into a rich textile-owning family from Asturias.

Rodrigo Rato is the great-grandson of politician Faustino Rodriguez-San Pedro y Diaz-Arguelles and the son of businessman Ramon Rato who was jailed in 1967 for tax evasion to Switzerland through his Banco Siero, and of Aurora Figaredo Sela.

Rodrigo Rato attended a Jesuit school Our Lady of Remembrance College, Madrid before studying law in the Complutense University.

In 1971 Rodrigo Rato went to University of California, Berkeley, and received an MBA in 1974 from the Haas School of Business.

In 1975 Rodrigo Rato became involved in the family business, first in Fuensanta, an Asturian mineral water company, and then in two Madrid construction firms.

Rodrigo Rato became involved in expanding the Cadena Rato chain of radio stations.

In 1977 Rodrigo Rato joined the newly formed Popular Alliance, a party containing former ministers of Franco, founded by Manuel Fraga, a close personal friend of his father.

In December 1979 Rodrigo Rato was elected to the national executive committee, and became secretary of the AP economic commission.

Rodrigo Rato supported tight controls on public spending, and an emphasis on the supply side of economics.

Rodrigo Rato represented the area until 1989 and subsequently represented Madrid from 1989 to 2000.

Until 1984 Rodrigo Rato was the Secretary of the parliamentary group.

Rodrigo Rato then became their economic affairs spokesman where he impressed the party with his attacks on the PSOE's economic policies.

Rodrigo Rato was seen to be on the liberal wing of the party.

When Fraga resigned from the leadership in December 1986 Rodrigo Rato backed Miguel Herrero y Rodriguez de Minon who lost the leadership race to Antonio Hernandez Mancha, but managed to keep his positions within the party.

Rodrigo Rato was given shared responsibility over the elections with Francisco Alvarez-Cascos Fernandez, the new party Secretary General.

Rodrigo Rato's ministries were reorganised, and he gave all his responsibilities to Cristobal Montoro Romero who became Minister of Finance.

Rodrigo Rato became the managing director of the IMF on 7 June 2004, taking over from Anne Krueger, who had been acting as temporary Managing Director after Horst Kohler, who at that time was nominated President of Germany, resigned the post 4 March 2004.

In June 2007 Rodrigo Rato announced that he would resign from his post the following October, citing personal reasons.

Rodrigo Rato assumed the presidency of Caja Madrid in 2010, a public savings bank based in the Community of Madrid, and after a merger with other six saving banks he assumed the presidency of the new group now called Bankia.

On 23 February 2017, Rodrigo Rato was convicted and sentenced to four and a half years in prison.

In September 2018, the sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Spain, and Rodrigo Rato entered prison on 25 October 2018.

Rodrigo Rato was held in solitary confinement under the FIES regime.

Rodrigo Rato was fined more than two million euros and ordered to return 568,413 euros to Spain's tax authorities.

Rodrigo Rato he has been married to journalist and editor-in-chief of the newspaper El Pais Alicia Gonzalez since 2015.