Dartmouth President Is Obama’s Pick for World Bank

[IDemo]

Source: New York Times

By JOHN H. CUSHMAN Jr.
Published: March 23, 2012

WASHINGTON — President Obama is nominating Jim Yong Kim, a physician who has been president of Dartmouth College for three years, to head the World Bank, the White House said Friday.

The nomination of Dr. Kim, who helped found Partners in Health and directed the World Health Organization’s department of H.I.V./AIDS, would recognize the importance of health issues in global development, elevating them to parity with finance. His work has emphasized bringing effective medicine to the poor.

The choice was a surprise. Leading candidates had included Laura D’Andrea Tyson, an economist and former head of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton administration. Unlike recent World Bank presidents, Dr. Kim is not a former banker or policy maker in the United States government.

President Obama was to make the announcement at the White House Friday morning before leaving for a summit meeting in South Korea tonight.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/24/business/global/dartmouth-president-is-obamas-pick-for-world-bank.html

[JustAnotherGen]

1. That needs a rec

Hopefully our 'candidate' will be placed in that position. And I love that this candidate 'gets' poverty, illness at a Global Level. It's time the W.B. had a non-banker leading it.

[Myrina]

2. A physician in charge of the World Bank?

Isn't that like putting an accountant in an operating room? Weird.

[onenote]

5. Only weird if you don't take any time to learn about him.

[mainer]

8. Whom do you trust more, a banker or a doctor?

We already know about the ethics of bankers.

[cstanleytech]

15. True enough. Heck I would trust a used care salesman before a banker now.

[JackRiddler]

9. Not at all. Bankers should not be in charge of anything.

Accountants should not run organizations. The World Bank can afford as many of those as it needs. Someonw with vision should be in charge.

[Owlet]

3. Sheer coincidence, right?

Dr. Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1952.

"President Obama was to make the announcement at the White House Friday morning before leaving for a summit meeting in South Korea tonight. "

[LibertyLover]

6. This could be an interesting appointment

Dr. Kim has done development work and that will be a benefit in being president of The World Bank Group. And if I have to retire in 3 years at age 62, I'd prefer my retirement photo get taken with him. My 10 year anniversary photo was with Wolfowitz. I never opened it. It may still be someplace in my office. I'll probably find it when I clean out my desk.

Also, he has a sense of humor, and rhythm. Important for the job.

http://www.ivygateblog.com/2011/03/dartmouths-prez-kim-debuts-as-a-rapping-spaceman/

[mainer]

7. An appointee who actually cares about global health and the needs of people

I'd rather have him than a banker any day.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. Commentary on candidates from before this announcement:

Now things are getting interesting. Lesley Wroughton has the wonderful news: two very highly qualified non-American candidates — Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Jose Antonio Ocampo — are going to be nominated to be president of the World Bank. This really puts the pressure on the White House to knock it out of the park with their nomination, because Ngozi, in particular, is broadly regarded both within and outside the Bank as being pretty much perfect for the job. She’s a whip-smart economist, she’s honest, she’s imaginative, she’s dedicated, she’s expert at navigating the Bank’s labyrinthine bureaucracy and politics, and she’s passionate about the way that the Bank can really make the world a better place.

In 2008, I “interviewed” Ngozi for Portfolio magazine. Which means that I went down to Washington and got escorted in to her office. She then arrived, I asked her one short question, she gave me a fluent and wonderful 2,000-word answer while barely pausing for breath, and then she left for a meeting with Bob Zoellick.

It’s been five years since I first said that Ngozi would make an excellent World Bank president, and this nomination is long overdue. What’s more, she will have a lot of support within the World Bank’s board — the body which ultimately will make the decision as to whom to choose.

Of course, the board members do what they’re told to do by the bank’s shareholders — the world’s countries. And if the Europeans and the Americans all vote for the US candidate, then the US candidate will win. That’s the simple truth. But here’s the thing: everybody on the board pays at least a modicum of lip service to the idea that the job will go to the best candidate. When Christine Lagarde took over at the IMF, she got the job because she was European, and the European candidate always gets the job. But at the same time, everybody voting for her could say with a straight face that she was, in fact, the best candidate as well.

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/03/22/the-ideal-nominee-for-world-bank-president/

Felix Salmon didn't even consider Dr. Kim; but I presume he would think a non-banker is not as qualified as Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who was the managing director of the World Bank until last year.

My guess is that Obama will say to the European nations "look, we supported Lagarde for the IMF, even though there was strong pressure for a change from the US/European hold on the head of each organisation - you've got to support us now"; and Europe will fall in line. But I wonder when the duopoly will actually get broken, in that case.

[Ruby the Liberal]

11. This is an interesting selection.

I like the out-of-the-box thinking on this.

Now to revisit some econ appointments....

[pampango]

12. Meet Jim Yong Kim, President Obama’s Pick To Head The World Bank

President Obama today nominated Dartmouth University President Jim Yong Kim to be the next president of the World Bank, replacing the outgoing Robert Zoellick. Kim’s name was not among those featured most prominently in the speculation surrounding Obama’s choice, with former administration economic adviser Larry Summers, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former administration economist Laura Tyson, and Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi leading the list. Here are the notable facts and figures about Kim’s life and career:

– He’s currently president of Dartmouth College, the first physician to hold that position and the first Asian-American to lead an Ivy League college.
– Kim co-founded the Partners in Health (PIH), a non-profit that focused on drug-resistant tuberculosis and helped drive down the cost of medication so that treatment could be widely available.
– He is also a former director of the Department of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organization (WHO).
– Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1959, but grew up in Muscatine, Iowa after his family moved when he was 5. He earned his M.D. from Harvard Medical Scool in 1991 and a doctorate in anthropology from Harvard University in 1993.

(more at the link)

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/03/23/450612/meet-jim-yong-kim-world-bank/

[Jeneral2885]

13. As CGD said Obama may have missed this chance

http://blogs.cgdev.org/globaldevelopment/2012/03/why-ngozi-okonjo-iweala-should-be-the-next-head-of-the-world-bank.php

An Anthropologist like Kim has little knowledge or IBRD work or IDA replenishments. He has to learn fast if selected.

[joshcryer]

14. This is a truly good selection.

Had it been someone bad we'd have 50+ threads here bemoaning Obama, but a good pick like this garners, only a few threads.

It's telling to be sure.

[joshcryer]

16. OMFG, look at this EPICNESS: Dartmouth’s Prez Kim debuts as a rapping spaceman

http://www.ivygateblog.com/2011/03/dartmouths-prez-kim-debuts-as-a-rapping-spaceman/

Holy shit I like this guy so much.