Michelle Bachelet

Michelle Bachelet

Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria (; born September 29, 1951) is a Social Democrat politician who was President of Chile from 11 March 2006 to 11 March 2010. She was the first female president of her country. In September 2010 Bachelet was appointed as the head of UN Women by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Bachelet won the 2006 presidential election in a runoff, beating center-right businessman and former senator Sebastián Piñera (who eventually succeeded Bachelet as President) with 53.5% of the vote. She campaigned on a platform of continuing Chile's free-market policies, while increasing social benefits to help reduce the gap between rich and poor.

Bachelet, a pediatrician and epidemiologist with studies in military strategy, served as Health Minister and Defense Minister under her predecessor, President Ricardo Lagos. She is a separated mother of three and describes herself as an agnostic. As well as her native Spanish, she speaks English, German, Portuguese and French, with varying levels of fluency.