Jim Yong Kim, President, World Bank
Jim Yong Kim, a U.S.-born Korean physician and anthropologist, was an anti-poverty activist before his World Bank appointment. He has committed the bank to eradicating extreme world poverty, a departure from its traditional role of financing major infrastructure projects. A strong environmentalist, Kim announced last year that the bank would no longer finance upstream oil and gas projects.
Trump is openly skeptical of the World Bank’s change of direction and poverty targets, but then so are many World Bank economists and staffers. Not surprisingly, there is some question whether the U.S. will continue to meet its obligations to the bank. A year ago, the Trump administration stopped its contribution to the IDB, which finances development projects in Latin America.
