When Jim Yong Kim took over as president of the World Bank in July 2012, his professional background came under scrutiny. Many wondered whether his credentials as an infectious diseases specialist qualified him to be the head of a development bank with a tradition of funding bridges and dams.
Since then, the former president of Dartmouth College with a rap habit has built a mixed and, critics argue, forgettable record. He has set a laudable target for the bank to end extreme poverty by 2030. But he has also pushed the institution into a restructuring that has yielded a staff revolt.
However, in the unfolding Ebola crisis in west Africa and beyond, Dr Kim is finding a way to reinvent his presidency. And, while this may end up pushing the bank in a direction some will be uneasy with, the crisis is rapidly becoming an important milestone in the Korean-born and Iowa-raised doctor’s tenure at the bank.