Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn is a French economist, lawyer, a politician, and a member of the Socialist Party of France (PS).
He was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris' wealthiest suburb where Nicolas Sarkozy was mayor for 18 years.
His appointment as IMF chief in 2007 came a year before the descent into global financial crisis heralded an unprecedented period of instability.
Since then he was widely credited with transforming the US-based IMF into a key player in the unfolding financial and economic turmoil back in Europe.
Mr Strauss-Kahn had come to be seen as a realistic and popular potential challenger to Nicolas Sarkozy for the French presidency in 2012. But charges of attempted rape in a New York hotel have brought all that to a halt, for now.
Here is a look back at his life.
1977: Academic
In 1977, Strauss-Kahn became an academic. He taught at the University of Nancy-II (1977–1980), the University of Nanterre (after 1981) and the École nationale d'administration (ENA). He is full professor of Macroeconomics and Microeconomics at Sciences-Po.
His economics emphasised the practical, overlooking the most radical ideas of the Vietnam student movement while sympathising with the anti-war aims.
1991: Minister for Industry and Foreign Trade
In 1991, he was nominated by Mitterrand to be Junior Minister for Industry and Foreign Trade in Édith Cresson's social-democrat government. He kept his position in Pierre Bérégovoy's government until the 1993 general elections.
1995: Mayor of Sarcelles
In 1995, he was elected mayor of Sarcelles, a poor suburb of Paris. His work in what was described as a 'challenging town' won him social credibility.
Then he masterminded the economic policy that helped the Socialists win legislative elections in 1997, when he became finance minister.
1998: Finance Minister
In 1998 he was appointed finance minister in Lionel Jospin's Socialist government in 1998, responsible for steering France towards the era of the euro.
Controversy forced him from office by 2000, though, as he faced accusations - of which he eventually cleared - of corruption and financial scandal.
After Jacques Chirac's success in the 2002 presidential election and the following Union for a Popular Movement (UMP)'s majority in Parliament, Strauss-Kahn was reelected deputy on 16 June 2002, in the 8th circonscription of the Val-d'Oise.
He first declined in taking part in the new leadership of the PS, then in the opposition, in the 2003 congress of the party.
But he joined the party's leadership again at the end of 2004, and was given overall responsibility for drawing up the Socialist programme for the 2007 presidential election.
He sought national prominence again in 2006 but lost out to Segolene Royal in the battle to become the Socialist Party candidate for president.
2007: Head of IMF
On 10 July 2007, he became the consensus European nominee to be the head of the IMF, with the personal support of President Nicolas Sarkozy.
On 30 September 2007, Dominique Strauss-Kahn was formally named as the new head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
An IMF report from January 2011 called for a stronger role for Special Drawing Rights (SDR) in order to stabilize the global financial system.
According to the report, an expanded role for SDRs could help to stabilize the international monetary system.
Furthermore, for most countries -- except for those using the US dollar as their currency-- there would be several advantages in switching the pricing of certain assets, such as oil and gold, from dollars to SDRs.
For some commentators that amounts to a call for a "new world currency that would challenge the dominance of the dollar".
Strauss-Kahn critical of global financial actors
Strauss-Kahn made comments that could be perceived as critical of global financial actors, in an interview for a documentary about the late-2000s financial crisis, 'Inside Job'.
He said he had attended a dinner organised by former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in which several CEOs of 'the biggest banks in the US' had admitted they (or perhaps bankers in general) were 'too greedy' and bore part of the responsibility for the crisis.
They said the government 'should regulate more, because we are too greedy, we can't avoid it'.
Strauss-Kahn said he warned the officials of a number of departments of the US government of an impending crisis. He also said: "At the end of the day, the poorest – as always – pay the most."
Sex scandals
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 he was censured by the IMF when he was found to have had an affair with a Hungarian economist.
She left the IMF but Mr Strauss-Kahn stayed on, and stayed married to his wife, the American-French journalist Anne Sinclair, whom he wed in 1991.
On May 15, 2011 he was charged with the sexual assault and attempted rape of a 32-year-old chambermaid in the luxury Sofitel hotel near Times Square. Mr Strauss-Kahn denied the charges.
