WASHINGTON — The White House on Friday named Jim Yong Kim, the president of Dartmouth College and a global health expert, as its nominee to lead the World Bank.
That makes Kim the front-runner to take the helm of the multinational development institution on June 30, when its current president, Robert Zoellick, will step down at the end of his five-year term. Tradition has held that Washington selects the head of the bank and Europe its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund, since their founding during World War II.
Kim’s name was closely held and not among those widely bandied about since Zoellick announced his plans to move on. Kim, highly respected among aid experts, is an anthropologist and a physician who co-founded Partners in Health, a nonprofit that provides health care for the poor, and a former director of the Department of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organization.
“The leader of the World Bank should have a deep understanding of both the role that development plays in the world and the importance of creating conditions where assistance is no longer needed,” President Barack Obama said Friday. “It’s time for a development professional to lead the world’s largest development agency.”
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
Thank you for coming to the website of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. We're working to keep you informed with the latest breaking news.