Washington: US President Donald Trump’s daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley are in the race for the post of World Bank President, after Jim Yong Kim abruptly announced that he was cutting short his tenure as the bank’s president.
The announcement was made by Kim on Monday, more than three years before his second term was due to end.
Other names making rounds include Treasury Undersecretary for International Affairs, David Malpass and Mark Green, head of the US Agency for International Development, reported The Financial Times.
Ivanka Trump, in 2017 was the driving force behind a $1 billion, Saudi-supported World Bank fund to promote entrepreneurship by women. The Treasury Department told AFP on Friday that it had no comment in potential candidates.
The department has received a “significant number of recommendations,” a spokesperson said. “We are beginning the internal review process for a US nominee. We look forward to working with the governors to select a new leader.”
Though the United States is the bank’s largest shareholder, and has had the privilege to choose its leader since the institution was founded after World War II, the success of a US candidate no longer appears completely assured.
Kim was the first American nominee to face a contested election for the World Bank presidency in 2012 and the bank’s board has said its selection process will be “open, merit-based and transparent,” implying non-US candidates would not be ruled out.
The World Bank Board said on Thursday that it would start accepting nominations for a new leader early next month and name a replacement for Kim by mid-April.
