James D. Wolfensohn, Former World Bank Chief, Dies at Age 86.
Australian-American lawyer, investment banker, and economist James Wolfensohn, who served as the President of the World Bank for 10 years, passed away. On June 1, 1995, Wolfensohn became the ninth president of the World Bank, replacing Lewis Preston, who retired because of ill health.
Wolfensohn was a veteran of the Royal Australian Air Force and a member of the 1956 Australian Olympic fencing team. He was educated at the University of Sydney (B.A., 1954; LL.B., 1957) and Harvard University (M.B.A., 1959). During a distinguished career in investment banking, he oversaw the restructuring of the Chrysler Corp. while working at Salomon Brothers, and for 14 years he served as president and chief executive officer of James D. Wolfensohn, Inc., an investment company. A philanthropist as well as an accomplished cellist, Wolfensohn served as chairman (1980–91) of New York City’s Carnegie Hall, overseeing its remodeling, and as chairman (1990–95) of the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Wolfensohn became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1980.
Together with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Wolfensohn launched the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative in 1996, a program that eventually provided more than $53 billion in debt relief to 27 of the world’s poorest countries.
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