US President George W. Bush is expected to choose a new World Bank president this week to succeed Paul Wolfowitz, who is resigning on June 30 after an ethics scandal. Topping most lists of possible candidates is Robert Zoellick, a former US trade representative and former deputy secretary of state who left government to join investment bank Goldman Sachs, followed by the deputy secretary of the US Treasury, Robert Kimmitt.
"I think we're getting pretty close," White House spokesman Tony Snow, travelling overnight with Mr Bush aboard Air Force One, said.
Asked if it could happen this week, Mr Snow said: "Likely, yes."
Despite pressure from Brazil and other developing countries to open the candidacy to any nationality, Mr Bush has insisted the next president will be an American.
By tradition the United States chooses the World Bank president; European countries select the head of its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund.
But the nomination must be approved by the bank's 24-member board of governors.
Europeans - who were particularly critical of Mr Wolfowitz and backed the drive to oust him from the bank - nevertheless continue to support that Washington maintain its role in naming the World Bank president.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, in charge of finding the candidate, has indicated he will consult with colleagues around the world, signaling sensitivity to opinion after the roiling crisis at the bank.
However, the development community is suggesting non-American candidates such as outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair; Kemal Dervis of Turkey, current administrator of the United Nations Development Program; and Trevor Manual, the South African finance minister.
source: 29may2007
WASHINGTON, May 29 — Robert B. Zoellick, a former deputy secretary of state and top trade envoy under President Bush, is expected to be named president of the World Bank, administration officials and others said today.
They said he was the top choice of European governments and also of the critics of the bank’s practices.
Mr. Zoellick would replace Paul D. Wolfowitz, who agreed to resign on May 17 after clinging to the post for months as a scandal mounted around him over special treatment given to his companion, who was employed at the bank. Mr. Wolfowitz’s efforts to combat corruption in borrower nations and to make the bank more accountable in its lending also engendered opposition.
Bush administration officials indicated that Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., in conducting a worldwide consultation process, found that many financial and development officials favored Mr. Zeollick. But he also won backing from those who supported some of the initiatives begun under Mr. Wolfowitz.
European diplomats said they had the impression that Mr. Zoellick would probably get the nod after a final interview with President Bush, which he apparently rushed to Washington over the weekend to have. Mr. Zoellick, a former trade diplomat and deputy secretary of state, now works for the Goldman Sachs investment bank; he was in Europe giving speeches and conducting business last week.
A number of other Goldman Sachs executives have joined the Bush administration, including Mr. Paulson, who played a role in the company’s hiring of Mr. Zoellick after he left the State Department a year ago. Others include Joshua Bolten, the White House chief of staff.
“It’s a very tight network, this Goldman one,” said a European official. “Even though Zoellick is new to Goldman, Paulson helped recruit him. If you’re going to limit your search to an inner circle of people trusted by the Bush administration who are also acceptable to the Europeans, Zoellick is going to score very well.”
Mr. Zoellick has spent 20 years in various government posts and developed a worldwide circle of contacts at the State and Treasury departments and the United States Trade Representative’s office, where he helped inaugurate the current round of global trade talks.
Those talks, which began in late 2001, are intended to lower trade barriers to help the poor countries of the world. As a result, administration officials said, Mr. Zoellick was strongly supported in the search by Africans, Latin Americans and Asians.
German leaders, who led the charge against Mr. Wolfowitz, remain grateful to Mr. Zoellick because of his role in helping to facilitate the peaceful reunification of Germany in 1991, negotiating with Russia and others as a State Department official under Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d.
Treasury officials said that it had been hard to find someone who fit both requirements — acceptability to the Europeans and willingness to continue overhauling the bank in the way Mr. Wolfowitz had begun.
“The secretary is focused on finding someone who is both able to build consensus internationally and committed to focusing the bank on measurable results and accountability,” said a Treasury official. “There are a lot of people strong in one or the other, but he’s looking for someone who is strong on both.”
source: 29may2007
WASHINGTON — President Bush has chosen Robert Zoellick, a one-time U.S. trade representative and former No. 2 official at the State Department, to lead the World Bank, a senior administration official said today.
Bush will announce the decision on Wednesday.
Zoellick would succeed Paul Wolfowitz, who is stepping down June 30 after findings by a special bank panel that he broke bank rules when he arranged a hefty compensation package in 2005 for his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, a bank employee.
The controversy led to calls from Europeans, the bank's staff, aid groups, Democratic politicians and others for Wolfowitz to resign from the poverty-fighting institution.
Bush's selection of Zoellick must be approved by the World Bank's 24-member board.
The White House expects Zoellick to gain the board's acceptance and said that, thus far, other nations have had a positive reaction to him, according to the senior administration official. The official spoke only on condition of anonymity because Bush had not announced the selection.
Zoellick announced last June that he was leaving his post as deputy secretary of state to join a Wall Street firm and work to develop investment markets around the world.
At the time, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said he had served as her "alter ego" in the department.
If ultimately approved as World Bank chief, Zoellick will need to regain trust, rebuild credibility and mend frayed relations inside the institution as well as with its member countries around the world.
All of those things are critical for the bank's new leader, who will have to persuade countries to contribute close to $30 billion over the next few years to fund a centerpiece bank program that provides interest-free loans to the poorest countries.
The Wolfowitz episode threw the bank's staff into a revolt, strained relations with the Europeans and threatened to tarnish the bank's reputation and hobble its ability to fight poverty.
Before taking the helm in 2005, Wolfowitz was the No. 2 official at the Pentagon and played a key role in mapping out the U.S.-led war in Iraq. From the beginning, Europeans and others were upset that Bush would pick someone to run the bank who was so closely associated with the war.
This time around, though, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson — who led the search efforts for a Wolfowitz replacement — said he was consulting closely with other countries.
By tradition, the World Bank has been run by an American, while its sister agency the International Monetary Fund is headed by a European. The United States, the bank's biggest financial contributor and largest shareholder wants to keep that going. However, some aid groups and other critics have called for the decades-old practice to be scrapped.
The World Bank, created in 1945 to rebuild Europe after World War II, provides more than $20 billion a year for projects such as building dams and roads, bolstering education and fighting disease. One of the bank's main programs offers interest-free loans to impoverished countries.
source: 29may2007
President Bush has decided to nominate Robert Zoellick, the former U.S. trade representative and former deputy secretary of state, to be president of the World Bank, a senior administration official said today.
"We believe Bob Zoellick is uniquely qualified for the job," said the official, who requested anonymity because Bush has yet announce the choice. "He really has an incredible resume and he has the trust and respect of many officials around the world. He also believes deeply in the World Bank's mission of lifting people out of poverty."
Bush is expected to announce his choice tomorrow, ending a search led by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. for a replacement for Paul D. Wolfowitz, who is leaving at the end of June. Wolfowitz announced plans to step down earlier this month after a bank panel concluded that he broke ethics rules in arranging a generous pay raise for his girlfriend, bank employee Shaha Riza. The deal and resultant uproar proved to be the final straw in what had been a tumultuous relationship between Wolfowitz and the World Bank staff.
Wolfowitz arrived at the bank two years ago under deep suspicion in many corners of the globe, because of his role as a prime architect of the Iraq war in his previous job as deputy defense secretary at the Pentagon. By contrast, leading development officials say that Zoellick enjoys a favorable reputation among many of the bank's chief constituents and patrons.
Zoellick, 53, is a well known player on the international stage who helped hammer out the deal to bring China into the World Trade Organization and as undersecretary of state during the first Bush administration helped broker German reunification. Zoellick was widely viewed as a top candidate for the World Bank post two years ago, eventually losing out to Wolfowitz.
"I think it is a very good thing that President Bush has clearly made an effort to nominate somebody who is widely respected in the international community," said Nancy Birdsall, president of the Washington-based Center for Global Development and a former director of policy research at the bank. "But I think the challenge for anyone at the World Bank is also a management challenge."
With 10,000 employees and 100 offices around the globe, the World Bank's mission is to providing money and advice to help poor countries develop their economies and eliminate poverty. The bank's decentralized structure "makes it complicated to manage, but not impossible," Birdsall said. "You do have to manage by persuasion and influence and analytic command of the issues. And Bob Zoellick has the wherewithal to do that."
source: 29may2007
WASHINGTON — In selecting Robert Zoellick to lead the World Bank, President Bush is turning to a top former adviser with a reputation as a foreign-policy centrist and a consensus builder on the international scene.
Mr. Bush is expected to announce the nomination today, according to a senior administration official. The official said the president considers Mr. Zoellick, currently a vice chairman at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., to be "exceptionally qualified" for the post of World Bank president, citing his "years of experience" in international economics, diplomacy and trade.
As Mr. Bush's first U.S. trade representative, Mr. Zoellick helped launch the Doha Round of global trade talks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and pushed for increased U.S. trade with Africa. Later, as deputy secretary of state, he tried to iron out differences between the U.S. and China over trade and security issues. He also traveled repeatedly to Sudan to try to broker a deal to end the fighting in the war-torn province of Darfur.
Now Mr. Zoellick gets a chance to heal the turmoil at the World Bank, where trust is in short supply after two divisive years under the leadership of Paul Wolfowitz, a former deputy secretary of defense and an architect of the U.S-led war with Iraq. Mr. Wolfowitz resigned two weeks ago after a bitter battle over allegations of ethical lapses and amid wide discontent within the global poverty-fighting institution over his agenda, which included a controversial push to combat official corruption. Mr. Wolfowitz's resignation officially takes effect at the end of June.
Mr. Zoellick's nomination must still be approved by the World Bank's board. By tradition, the U.S., as the bank's largest shareholder, has always nominated the institution's president, while Europe has selected the head of the World Bank's sister institution, the International Monetary Fund.
Mr. Zoellick joined the Bush administration in 2001, and built up a strong reputation among many developing countries as the lead U.S. trade negotiator. He played a key role in launching and shepherding the ambitious Doha talks, which began in the fall of 2001 with the goal of better integrating developing nations into the global trading system. The experience could give him added credibility within the World Bank. As the new bank head, Mr. Zoellick could be expected to apply the financial and technical resources of the institution to help close those negotiations.
The White House settled on Mr. Zoellick after former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist withdrew his name from consideration for the World Bank post on Monday. Mr. Frist, a heart surgeon who served 12 years in the Senate, had also been given close scrutiny by the White House as a possible successor to Mr. Wolfowitz, who came under intense criticism both inside and outside the bank for securing a generous compensation package for his girlfriend, a bank employee.
Mr. Frist, a Republican, told the White House he isn't ready to return to full-time public service, individuals familiar with the White House deliberations said. Mr. Frist retired from Congress at the end of last year and now lives in Tennessee. Also considered during the recent search was Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt, a former U.S. ambassador to Germany.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson led the administration's search for a new bank president, and pushed hard for Mr. Zoellick. The two men share deep interest in China, and crossed paths at Goldman Sachs, where Mr. Paulson was formerly chairman and chief executive. The search for a bank president intensified in recent days, with the White House hoping to select a final candidate ahead of the summit of Group of Eight major powers, which is set to begin June 6 in Germany.
By some accounts, Mr. Zoellick can be a prickly and demanding boss. During his recent service in the Bush administration, he worked on a set of issues much more in tune with the agenda of the World Bank than Mr. Wolfowitz had as deputy defense chief.
Mr. Zoellick faces a formidable challenge of rebuilding trust within the institution. During Mr. Wolfowitz tenure he alienated much of the bank's bureaucracy and governing board, which represents the 185 nations that constitute the bank's membership.
Deputy Secretary of State,
Term of Appointment: 02/22/2005 to 07/07/2006
Robert B. Zoellick's nomination as Deputy Secretary of State was confirmed by the Senate on February 16, 2005. He was sworn in on February 22, 2005.
Since February 2001, Mr. Zoelick served as the 13th U.S. Trade Representative. During his tenure as U.S. Trade Representative, Mr. Zoellick completed the negotiations to bring China and Taiwan into the World Trade Organization; developed a strategy to launch new global trade negotiations at the WTO meeting in Doha and to press the negotiations forward in 2004; completed and enacted Free Trade Agreements with Singapore, Chile, Australia, and Morocco; completed FTAs with five nations of Central America and the Dominican Republic, as well as with Bahrain; worked with Congress to enact the Jordan FTA and the Vietnam Trade Agreement; launched Free Trade Agreement negotiations with the Southern African Customs Union, Panama, the Andean countries, and Thailand; and worked with Congress to pass the Trade Act of 2002, which included new Trade Promotion Authority, and to expand the African Growth & Opportunity Act (AGOA).
During President George H.W. Bush's Administration, Mr. Zoellick served with Secretary of State James A. Baker, III, as Under Secretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs, as well as Counselor to the Department (Under Secretary rank). Mr. Zoellick's responsibilities included political, economic, and security topics in all regions of the world. He served as the senior U.S. official in the "Two-plus-Four" negotiations for German unification and worked closely with Secretary Baker on the policies pertaining to the end of the Cold War. Mr. Zoellick was the lead State Department official in the negotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Uruguay Round, and the launch of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group. He played a key role in the Central American peace processes. Mr. Zoellick was also appointed the President's personal representative, or Sherpa, for the G-7 Economic Summits in 1991 and 1992. In August 1992, Mr. Zoellick was appointed White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Assistant to the President.
Mr. Zoellick received the Distinguished Service Award, the Department of State's highest honor. The German government awarded him the Knight Commanders Cross for his role in developing the U.S. strategy toward German unification.
From 1985 to 1988, Mr. Zoellick served at the Department of the Treasury in various positions, including Counselor to Secretary James A. Baker, III, Executive Secretary of the Department, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Policy. Mr. Zoellick received the Alexander Hamilton Award, the Department of Treasury's highest honor.
After leaving government service in 1993, Mr. Zoellick was appointed an Executive Vice President at Fannie Mae, the largest housing finance investor in the United States, where he managed the company's affordable housing business; legal, regulatory, government relations activities; and international financial services. He also served as the John M. Olin Professor of National Security at the U.S. Naval Academy, Research Scholar at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, and Senior International Advisor to Goldman Sachs.
In May 2002, Mr. Zoellick was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana. He also served as board member of a number of private and public organizations, including Alliance Capital, the Council on Foreign Relations, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and the World Wildlife Fund Advisory Council.
Raised in Naperville, Illinois, Mr. Zoellick received a J.D. magna cum laude from the Harvard Law School and a Master of Public Policy degree from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in 1981. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore College in 1975.
Released on February 22, 2005
source: 29may2007
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