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The World Bank
1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433 USA

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James D. Wolfensohn: World Bank Group President

James D. Wolfensohn, the World
Bank Group's ninth president since
1946, established his career as an
international investment banker with a
parallel involvement in development
issues and the global environment.
Since becoming president on June 1,
1995, he has traveled to more than 100
countries to gain first-hand experience
of the challenges facing the World
Bank, and its 181 member countries.
On September 27, 1999, Mr.
Wolfensohn was unanimously
reappointed by the Bank's Board of
Executive Directors to a second fiveyear term as president beginning June
1, 2000. This will make him the third
president in World Bank history to
serve a second term.
During his travels, Mr. Wolfensohn
has not only visited development
projects supported by the World Bank,
but he has also met with the Bank's
government clients as well as with
representatives from business, labor,
media, Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGOs), religious and
women's groups, students and
teachers. In the process he has taken
the initiative in forming new strategic
partnerships between the Bank and the

governments it serves, the private
sector, civil society, regional
development banks and the UN.
In 1996, together with the
International Monetary Fund (IMF),
Mr. Wolfensohn initiated the Heavily
Indebted Poor Countries Initiative
(HIPC) as the first comprehensive
debt reduction program to address the
needs of the world's poorest, most
heavily indebted countries. Two years
later, he led a global review of the
HIPC Initiative, involving church
groups, NGOs and representatives
from creditor and HIPC countries, to
assess its progress and identify ways
to make the Initiative deeper, broader
and faster. This review, and proposals
by donor countries, culminated in

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World Bank Group President James D. Wolfensohn

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