James D. Wolfensohn is the World
Bank Group’s ninth President since
1946. He was reappointed to a second
five-year term as president beginning
June 1, 2000. Prior to joining the
Bank, Mr Wolfensohn was an
international investment banker.
He set up his own investment firm,
James D. Wolfensohn Inc., in 1981 to
advise major international and US
corporations, previously holding a
series of senior positions in finance
including Executive Partner of
Salomon Brothers in New York and
head of its investment-banking
department, Executive Deputy
Chairman and Managing Director of
Schroeder’s Ltd in London, President
of J. Henry Schroeder’s Banking
Corporation in New York, and
Managing Director, Darling & Co of
Australia. Currently, in addition to
serving as President of the World
Bank Group, he is Chairman of the
Board of the Institute for Advanced
Study at Princeton, and an Honorary
Trustee of the Brookings Institution
and a member of the Council on
Foreign Relations and the Century
Association in New York.
MrWolfensohn has been the recipient
of many awards for his volunteer
work, including the first David
Rockefeller Prize of the Museum of
Modern Art in New York for his work
for culture and the arts, and in May
1995 he was awarded an Honorary
Knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II
for his contribution to the arts. He
was born in Australia in 1933 and is a
naturalized US citizen. He holds a
BA and LLB from the University of
Sydney and an MBA from the
Harvard Graduate School of Business.