Mr Strauss-Kahn's predecessor, Rodrigo de Rato, left the post after only three years, for personal reasons.
But Mr Rato has grounds to hope that Latin America is better prepared this time.
But here too, Mr Rato may have entered the scene at a propitious moment.
The news comes after Mr Rato was commissioned in April to formulate changes to the fund's voting structure.
The meetings were the first for Rodrigo Rato as IMF managing director.
Mr Rato has also urged the IMF to improve its early warning systems so that it gets wind of future crises in good time.
As part of Mr de Rato's reforms, and largely at the behest of America, the Fund has beefed up its focus on exchange-rate surveillance.
Like Mr de Rato, he is keen to keep the Fund involved in the poorest countries, but also wants to broaden the organisation's global role.
Argentina is likely to be Mr Rato's first order of business.
As his successor he chose Mariano Rajoy, a decent but plodding politician who seemed unlikely to overshadow him, rather than Mr Rato, his brilliant finance minister.
ECONOMIST: Flirting with nationalists, provoking the opposition
Mr Rato played an important role as an intermediary in the IMF's most difficult case of the past few years: the default of Argentina in 2001.
Changes to voting rights for China, South Korea, Turkey and Mexico could happen in a "few days", the FT quoted IMF managing director Rodrigo Rato as saying.
Their candidates represented a wide swath of occupations and expertise, from International Monetary Fund Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato y Figaredo to musician, actress and "material girl" Madonna.
Rato said the transition to higher interest rates had gone smoothly so far but was not finished and urged central bankers to communicate their rate plans to markets to let them adjust.
Born in Madrid to a wealthy family and the owner of a group of businesses, Mr Rato, who is 55, speaks excellent English thanks to his time studying at the University of California in the 1970s.
The UNESCO-Hamdan Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Prize for Outstanding Practice and Performance in Enhancing the Effectiveness of Teachers was awarded to The Rato Bangala Foundation (Nepal), The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences Schools Enrichment Centre (South Africa) and to The Banco del Libro (Venezuela).
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