City | 12:49 pm | March 26, 2012 | By Ben Prawdzik

Dartmouth president nominated for World Bank

President Barack Obama nominates Jim Yong Kim to the World Bank's presidency.
President Barack Obama nominates Jim Yong Kim to the World Bank's presidency. Photo by Wikimedia Commons.

President Barack Obama on Friday nominated Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim to become the new head of the World Bank.

“The leader of the World Bank should have a deep understanding of both the role that development plays in the world and the importance of creating conditions where assistance is no longer needed,” Obama said in the announcement. “It’s time for a development professional to lead the world’s largest development agency.”

A first-generation Korean American, Kim graduated magna cum laude from Brown University and earned a M.D. and Ph.D in anthropology from Harvard. While at Harvard, he held professorships in medicine and human rights. He co-founded Partners in Health, a non-profit health care organization based in Boston, he won a MacArthur “Genius” Award and he made the TIME 100.

The Bank will likely select its new president by mid-April.

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