In the sixth installment in CIGI’s G20 Paper series, Gordon Smith discusses the evolution of the Group of Seven (G7) to the formation of the Group of Twenty (G20) finance ministers in late 1990s, and the G20 leaders’ summit forum at the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008. Gordon Smith discusses the evolution of the summitry from the G7 in the 1970s, to the first G20 leader's summit in 2008.