Jim Yong Kim, left, is President Obama‘s choice to become the next
president of the World Bank. Photo by www.calgaryherald.com
From
WIRE REPORTS
President
Obama has nominated Jim Yong Kim, the president of Dartmouth College, as the
next head of the World Bank.
Some experts were surprised that
Obama chose a candidate with a health background rather than a more traditional
selection of an authority in politics or the financial field.
While
the U.S. government typically chooses the leader of the World Bank, Kim does
face some opposition. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the finance minister of Nigeria, has
the support of African countries. In South America, nations have tapped Jose
Antonio Ocampo, the former finance minister in Colombia.
All
three will be interviewed by the 25 members of the World Bank’s governing board
in mid-April. The man selected will succeed outgoing President Robert B.
Zoellick.
The
role of the World Bank is to strengthen private financial markets, but it also
funds public health and social programs in third-world countries. That is Kim’s
strength.
Kim
moved to the U.S. from South Korea with his family at age 5. They landed in
Iowa, and he went on to play quarterback on his high school football team. He
attended Brown University in Rhode Island, and then earned his medical degree
and a doctorate in anthropology from Harvard.
Kim,
now 52, has worked on public health issues around the globe. He led a program
of the World Health Organization to expand the distribution of drugs to combat
HIV and also saw to it that medication for tuberculosis reached remote lands.
After Obama announced his nomination, he intended to leave for a “listening
tour” to gain support from other countries.
Kim
was named president of Dartmouth in 2009, becoming the first Asian American to
take the helm of an Ivy League college. He previously had been a professor at
Harvard Medical School and at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Kim
will immediately leave for an international “listening tour” to cement support
among other countries, according to an administration official. The official
said the White House was confident of broad support.
