Outgoing World Bank president reveals next roles

The outgoing president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, said today (June 27) that he will join the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University and the Peterson Institute for International Economics when he steps down as World Bank Group president on June 30.

Zoellick will become the Peterson Institute's first ‘distinguished visiting fellow' as well as becoming a senior fellow at Harvard. Zoellick said he intended to work "on the intersection of economics and security" at the two institutions.

Zoellick joined the World Bank in 2007, becoming its 11th president. The World Bank said in a statement that Zoellick "modernised the Bank by making it more accountable, flexible, fast-moving, transparent and focused on good governance and anti-corruption". He also helped to change the nature of governance in developing countries by encouraging developing countries to "set their own priorities rather than have them dictated from the Bank", the World Bank said.

Prior to working at the World Bank, Zoellick was a vice-chairman at Goldman Sachs' international unit and chairman of Goldman Sachs' board of international advisers from 2006–07. From 2005–06 he was deputy secretary of the US Department of State.

Jim Yong Kim will replace Zoellick as World Bank Group president, starting his five-year term on July 1. Kim is currently president of Dartmouth College, and previously held professorships at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Zoellick will join Adam Posen, an external member of the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of England, when he moves to the Peterson Institute. Posen will become the next president of the Peterson Institute after he leaves the central bank on August 31.