James Wolfensohn

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James D. Wolfensohn (2003)
James D. Wolfensohn (2003)

James Wolfensohn KBE AO (born December 1, 1933) was the ninth president of the World Bank Group.

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[edit] Early life

Wolfensohn was born in Sydney, Australia. According to The World's Banker by Sebastian Mallaby, Wolfensohn was raised in Australia, the son of an unsuccessful Jewish businessman who left England for Australia during the Great Depression. He was captain of the Australian fencing team at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, and an Officer in the Royal Australian Air Force. He was educated at Sydney Boys High School, studied Arts and Law at the University of Sydney and in 1959 earned a Master of Business Administration degree at Harvard Business School.

[edit] Business career

Before attending Harvard, Wolfensohn was a lawyer in the Australian law firm of Allen, Allen & Hemsley in Sydney (now Allens Arthur Robinson).

Upon graduating from Harvard Business School, Wolfensohn worked briefly for Swiss cement giant Holderbank (now Holcim). He then returned to his native Australia, where he worked for various banking institutions before being employed by J. Henry Schroders, a London-based investment bank. He was a senior executive in the London office before becoming managing director of the bank's New York City office from 1970 to 1976. He later became a senior executive at Salomon Brothers.

In 1980, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States, after it was rumoured that he was a candidate to succeed Robert McNamara as President of the World Bank. After he was unsuccessful in this pursuit, he established his own investment firm, James D. Wolfensohn, Inc., along with partners including Paul A. Volcker, the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank. Upon accepting his nomination to serve as President of the World Bank in 1995, Wolfensohn divested of his ownership interest in James D. Wolfensohn, Inc. The firm was later bought by Bankers Trust.

In 2005, upon stepping down as President of the World Bank, he founded Wolfensohn & Company, LLC, a private investment firm and advisory that provides strategic consulting advice to governments and large corporations doing business in emerging market economies.

Since 2005, Wolfensohn has also been the chairman of the International Advisory Board of Citigroup.

[edit] Public service

Wolfensohn became President of the World Bank on July 1, 1995 after he was nominated by then President of the United States Bill Clinton. He was unanimously supported by the Bank's Board of Executive Directors to a second five-year term in 2000, becoming the third person to serve two terms in the position after Eugene R. Black and Robert McNamara. He visited over 120 countries around the world during his term as President. On January 3, 2005, he announced that he would not seek a third term as President. During his term, the Alfalfa Club named him as their nominee for President of the United States in 2000 as part of a long-standing tradition.[1]

Upon leaving the Bank on May 31, 2005, Wolfensohn assumed the post of Special Envoy for Gaza Disengagement for the Quartet on the Middle East. United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appointed him to this position, in which he was to help coordinate Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and to spearhead reconstruction efforts as the Palestinians assume sovereignty over the area. Citing frustration with the stymied Road Map process, he announced that he would not continue on past his original one-year commitment, and left the post on April 30, 2006.[2]

Also in 2005, Wolfensohn founded the Wolfensohn Center for Development [1] at the Brookings Institution, a Washington D.C. based think tank.[3] The center examines how to implement, scale up and sustain development interventions to solve key development challenges at a national, regional and global level and strives to bridge the gap between development theorists and practitioners. Current projects focus on youth exclusion in the Middle East, large-scale anti-poverty programs, reforms of global economic governance, and regional cooperation, particularly in Central Asia.

Wolfensohn is a member of the board of directors of Endeavor, a non-profit organization that supports high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets, an honorary trustee of the Brookings Institution, and served as a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation. He is a trustee and currently the chairman of the board of trustees of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He is also chairman emeritus of Carnegie Hall in New York and of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Wolfensohn has attended meetings of the Bilderberg Group, the Aspen Institute, and the World Economic Forum.

[edit] Personal life and honors

A friend of Jacqueline du Pré, he began cello studies with her at the age of 41. He continues to play and has appeared, together with musician friends, at private events at Carnegie Hall and elsewhere.

Wolfensohn has received numerous awards throughout his life, including an honorary knighthood of the Order of the British Empire in 1995 for his service to the arts, and becoming an honorary Officer of the Order of Australia.

He was conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Science by the University of New South Wales on 24 November 2006.

He is married to Elaine, nee Botwinick, and has three grown children, Sara, Naomi and Adam, and a grandson, Benjamin.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] References

  1. ^ NNDB.com (2006). Alfalfa Club. Retrieved May 21, 2006.
  2. ^ CNN.com (2006). Wolfensohn steps down as Gaza envoy Retrieved May 21, 2006.
  3. ^ CNN.com (2006). Gift to Help Create Center on Poverty. Retrieved March 16, 2007.

[edit] External links

[edit] Biographies

[edit] Other

Preceded by
Lewis T. Preston		 President of the World Bank
1995–2005		 Succeeded by
Paul Wolfowitz
v • d • e
Presidents of the World Bank

Eugene Meyer · John J. McCloy · Eugene R. Black · George David Woods · Robert McNamara · Alden W. Clausen · Barber Conable · Lewis Thompson Preston · James Wolfensohn · Paul Wolfowitz

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