The result of today’s World Bank decision doesn’t surprise us. Jim Yong Kim, who was nominated by President Obama, will begin his 5-year term on July 1. However, there are details of this World Bank leadership transition that are worth highlighting.First up, this is the first time in history where the voting was not unanimous. Nigerian finance minister Okonjo-Iweala became the first candidate to challenge a US nominee. Looking at her CV, we can only get impressed: she served at the World Bank for 20 years and holds economics degrees from Harvard and MIT. Emerging countries are calling for voting based on the candidate’s merits instead of nationality and her experience addresses exactly where Kim lacks: finance.That’s right, Kim is breaking the stereotype set forth by the previous 11 World Bank presidents. He does not have a background in finance or government. Then what is he? Well, I guess I can safely call him a multi-faceted overachiever. A native of South Korea, Kim was raised in Iowa. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Brown University, earns his MD from Harvard Medical School and then his Ph.D. in anthropology also from Harvard. He co-founded and worked 16 years with the non-profit organization Partners in Health, which spends its resources curing tuberculosis in developing countries like Peru and Haiti. He is a specialist in HIV prevention and served 3 years at the World Health Organization designing HIV care programs that later treated more than 7 million people in Africa. So you see, he is a doctor. Or as I would like to say, a scientist with understanding of humanity. To all the voices out there who believe his lack of finance experience takes away his candidacy, I would like to ask, why is that such a big deal? I happen to believe a leader is a leader, and a leader who understands science and people is better than a leader who understands income statement. His experience doesn’t necessarily make him more superior than the other candidates, but it should not diminish his qualification for this post.Also I would like to point out that running a college is a complicated task and it involves some finance. Kim became the 17th president of Dartmouth College in 2009. He’s also the first Asian American to assume the position of president at an Ivy League Institution.Please share your thoughts with me, whether or not you think the appointment is well-supported. Send in your comments to our show or tweet me @juliasun_onair. I’m Julia Sun reporting for the Financial News Network in New York City, we’ll be right back.
