With Kim, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner '83 by his side, Obama explained the importance of selecting a World Bank president with "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."
Developing nations have criticized the World Bank for the American domination of the organization, according to the Associated Press. The World Bank, consisting of 187 member nations, works to combat poverty and support development, largely by offering development loans to countries interested in financing infrastructure projects.
"It's time for a development professional to lead the world's largest development agency," Obama said in the announcement.
Kim is a somewhat unusual choice for the position, and his name had not been suggested publicly since World Bank President Robert Zoellick announced his resignation in February, according to the AP.
Obama and members of his administration considered over a dozen candidates, but Obama wanted a nominee with extensive development experience and found Kim's public health experience appealing, according to the AP.
"This is one of the most critical institutions fighting poverty and providing assistance to developing countries in the world today," Kim said in a campus-wide email on Friday morning. "After much reflection, I have accepted this nomination to national and global service."
The World Bank's 25-member executive board will select its next leader in April. As the world's biggest economy, the U.S. has the highest percentage of votes, according to the AP. Developing countries are expected to nominate up to three candidates for the World Bank presidency, the AP reported.
"Jim Kim is an inspired and outstanding choice to lead the World Bank based on his years of commitment and leadership to development and particularly health care and AIDS treatment across the world," former President Bill Clinton said in a statement to the AP.
Kim, the Ivy League's first Asian-American president, was inaugurated as the College's 17th president on July 1, 2009 and has focused his efforts largely on closing the $100-million budget gap present when he took office and combating binge drinking and sexual assault on campus.
"While President Obama's call is compelling, the prospect of leaving Dartmouth at this stage is very difficult," Kim said in the email. "Nevertheless, should the World Bank's Board of Executive Directors elect me as the next president, I will embrace the responsibility."
Kim said he has discussed his decision with Chair of the Dartmouth Board of Trustees Steve Mandel '78 and that the "Board will take appropriate steps to ensure continuity of leadership and determine the timing of a search" for a new College president should Kim be selected to lead the World Bank.
Kim graduated from Brown University in 1982 with a major in human biology. He earned a medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1991 and earned his doctorate in anthropology in 1993 from Harvard University.
Before coming to Dartmouth, Kim served as the chair of the department of global health and social medicine at HMS and previously taught undergraduate and graduate students in anthropology, social medicine and global health. Kim was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2004 for his extensive research on treating drug-resistant tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
In addition to his professorship, Kim also worked at several hospitals affiliated with HMS, serving as chief of the division of global health equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital and director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights.
Kim is a co-founder of Partners in Health, a non-profit organization that provides medical support to low-income communities around the world, and a former director of the World Health Organization's initiative to combat HIV/AIDS.
As a result of their efforts to develop effective and affordable treatments for drug-resistant tuberculosis, Kim and Farmer were later appointed advisors to the director of the World Health Organization.
In 2004, Kim was chosen to direct the WHO's initiative to combat HIV/AIDS. Kim spearheaded the "3 by 5" program, which aimed to treat three million people suffering from HIV/AIDS by 2005.
Kim received a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation in 2003, and was listed as one of the 100 most influential people by Time Magazine in 2006 for his work on global epidemics.
