|
The president and three managing directors are joined at the top level of the bank's management by executive Vice Presidents Lars Thunell of Sweden and Japan's Yukiko Omura, as well as Chief Financial Officer Vincenzo La Via from Italy.
Okonjo-Iweala, a princess from Ogwashi-Uku in Delta State, who left the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in contentious circumstances in 2006, will join El Savador's Juan Jose Daboub and New Zealand's Graeme Wheeler in that capacity.
In her new position, the former minister will have responsibility for the World Bank in Africa, South Asia, and Europe and Central Asian regions. She will also take oversight responsibility for Human Resources. Her appointment is effective December 1, 2007.
Mr. Zoellick in a statement posted on the bank’s website said, Ngozi brings a unique set of skills and experience to the World Bank Group. As an outstanding Minister of Finance and Foreign Minister in Nigeria, Ngozi helped lead the country’s reform Programme on issues of fiscal prudence, transparency of government accounts, good governance, and anti-corruption.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala resigned her position as Vice-President of the World Bank, in 2003 to join the Obasanjo administration, where she served until mid 2006 when the relationship between them allegedly turned sour.
Okonjo-Iweala is founder of NOI-Gallup polls, an indigenous Nigerian opinion research organisation, and co-founder of the Makeda Fund - a fund to invest in African women entrepreneurs. She is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Her economic team was responsible for implementing the Obasanjo administration’s far-reaching economic and social reform agenda. The reforms made particular advancement in restoring macro-economic stability, tripling growth, initiating a strong fight against corruption, and increasing transparency.
Before taking up her ministerial appointment, Okonjo-Iweala served in a number of important positions at the World Bank including Vice President and Corporate Secretary, Director of Operations in the Middle East and North Africa region, and Country Director for the South East Asia and Mongolia Country unit. She joined the World Bank in 1982.
Okonjo-Iweala is a recipient of numerous awards and honours including Time Magazine European Hero 2004, Euromoney Magazine Global Finance Minister of the year 2005, Financial Times/The Banker African Finance Minister of the year 2005, Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Colby College 2007, and Brown University 2006, Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, Northern Caribbean University, Jamaica.
She is a member of numerous boards and advisory groups in the public, private and non-governmental sectors, including DATA, the World Resources Institute, the Clinton Global Initiative, the Nelson Mandela Institution and the African Institutes of Science and Technology, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation Governance Prize Committee, Friends of the Global Fund Africa. She is also an adviser to the World Bank on the Stolen Assets Recovery (STAR) initiative, and served as a member of the Malan Committee on Bank-Fund collaboration.
Okonjo-Iweala graduated with an A.B. magna cum laude in Economics from Harvard University, and holds a PhD in Regional Economics and Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
|
