Draghi swapped his position as the head of Italy's central bank for the ECB top job this week to become the bank's third leader since its creation in 1999.
With his native Italy now at the centre of the eurozone's debt storm and the ECB's controversial purchases of government bonds potentially crucial to his homeland's fate, Draghi faced a baptism of fire at his debut meeting.
To make matters worse, just hours before it began, Germany and France started talking openly for the first time about Greece becoming the first country to leave the euro, plunging the currency into fresh controversy.
Draghi's gambit was to deliver a pre-emptive strike by going against expectations and cutting interest rates.
With all the drama going on in the background, financial markets were on high alert for any differences between Draghi and his predecessor Trichet on the key question of the bank's appetite to keep its bond market support going indefinitely.
Albeit in a markedly more direct style, like the Frenchman, Draghi made it clear the bank was not about to crank up the printing presses to full.
"Our securities market programme has three characteristics: it is temporary; it is limited; it is justified in restoring the functioning of monetary transmission channels," he said, boiling down into three simple points what Trichet's Gallic style might have needed double the bandwidth for.
Enter the Draghi
The difference in communication style between Draghi, whose name means dragon in English, and Trichet was obvious throughout even if the amount of information divulged was not.
A plodding but clear reading of the ECB's policy statement gave way to a good natured exchange with journalists at a packed first news conference.
Rather like a teacher popular with his pupils, there were humour and smiles interspersed with occasional flashes of discipline when he felt he had said all he was going to say on a topic. "I think I have said already that we never pre-commit," he said when asked a third time about a follow-up rate cut.
In many of the areas there was little to suggest a fundamental shift in policy is about to take place at the ECB.
The policy statement, which is prepared by Executive Board member Juergen Stark, saw few changes in style or order. That could of course change when Stark leaves the bank later in the year.
The news conference was, at around 45 minutes, noticeable shorter than most presided over by Trichet – perhaps because Draghi was booked on a flight to Cannes to meet up with G20 leaders.
His entrance was more like that of a rock star than a technocrat as over 50 photographers and cameramen greeted him with a frenzy of flashbulbs that bounced off his gold-rimmed glasses.
In one clever move he played to the Germans in the crowd by admitting his admiration for the Bundesbank and its steady hand approach. He also looked to assuage fears that he could turn the bank's anti-inflation focus upside down. "Continuity, consistency and credibility," he said would be his watchwords.
That appeared to be met with a nod from Frankfurt's original central bank. "The words were very nice, now let's see what the substance is," said one of its officials.
