Obama Nominates Dartmouth College President Kim to Head World Bank

A handout picture provided by the Dartmouth College dated 22 September 2009 shows Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim. Kim has been nominated by US President Barack Obama to head the World Bank on 23 March 2012. EPA/BGNES

US President Barack 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.

Dr. Kim, the first Asian-American to head an Ivy League institution, Dartmouth College, helped found Partners in Health and directed the World Health Organization's department of H.I.V./AIDS.

His nomination would recognize the importance of health issues in global development, elevating them to parity with finance, according to Washington. His work has emphasized bringing effective medicine to the poor, the White House said.

Leading media such as the NYT have been quick to comment that Obama's choice of Dartmouth President Kim 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.

Dr. Kim will not be the only candidate for the World Bank job. On Friday morning, Angola, South Africa and Nigeria put forward the name of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Nigerian finance minister and former World Bank official.

Dr. Kim, who was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2003, was born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1959 and moved with his family to the United States at the age of 5. He graduated from Brown University in 1982, earned an M.D. from Harvard University in 1991 and a Ph.D. in anthropology there in 1993.

He was the first Asian-American to head an Ivy League institution. The nomination was confirmed by White House officials.

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