If his nomination is confirmed when the Bank's 25-member executive board votes on April 19, Kim will become the head of the organization Obama called "one of the most powerful tools we have to reduce poverty and raise standards of living" in poor and developing countries.
Kim became president of the College in 2009, and Chair of the Board of Trustees Stephen Mandel '78 said in an interview with The Dartmouth that his potential departure has generated "mixed emotions."
"We're very proud that he was selected, and it reflects well on him and on Dartmouth," Mandel said. "But we're obviously disappointed he's leaving. He was really starting to build some good institutional momentum, which is something we hope to keep going."
Mandel said Kim's nomination was a surprise and that Kim had not considered the possibility when he accepted his position at the College. The Board has already begun the process of selecting an interim president, Mandel said.
"That's something we're hoping to come to a conclusion on within the coming weeks," he said. "The vote to confirm him won't be until April 19, and we can't announce anything before then, but we hope that something will be ready soon after."
Kim said he will remain College president throughout the selection process in an email sent to the Dartmouth community on Friday.
"If I am elected, our Board will take appropriate steps to ensure continuity of leadership and determine the timing of a search," he said. "For now, I remain president of Dartmouth."
Mandel said the search for a full-time replacement, which would involve a process to review both internal and external candidates, will begin if and when Kim's nomination is confirmed.
"We will have a broad canvassing of the community, and anybody with an idea can put names in the hat," Mandel said. "Any student, faculty member or administrator who has any brilliant ideas should feel welcome to share them. We want to find another great leader for Dartmouth, because Dartmouth deserves a great leader."
Before taking his post at Dartmouth, Kim chaired the department of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School, was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2004 and was chosen to direct the World Health Organization's initiative to combat HIV/AIDS. Kim received a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation in 2003 and was named one of the 100 most influential people by Time Magazine in 2006.
Kim is also a co-founder of Partners in Health, a non-profit organization that provides medical support to low-income communities around the world. He became the Ivy League's first Asian-American president and the 17th president of the College in July 2009.
Mandel said Kim's life experience make him a good candidate to lead both Dartmouth and the World Bank.
"He has a very good natural leadership gift and a broad base of experience, both in academia and in the non-profit world and globally," he said. "Obviously for the World Bank job, he has a relevant set of experiences in dealing with emerging market countries."
Kim's nomination comes as a surprise, as he is known for his work in health care delivery science rather than economics, according to the Associated Press.
In his announcement, Obama said it is "time for a development professional to lead the world's largest development agency."
Mandel said criticism for Kim's lack of economic pedigree is unfounded.
"There's a number of qualities or things that the head of the World Bank needs to do, and no single individual on the planet encapsulates all those things," Mandel said. "There are 10,000 employees there hopefully they have some good economists."
Over the years, leaders in developing countries have been critical of America's dominance of the Bank's leadership, the Associated Press reported. All 11 presidents of the Bank have been American since its inception in 1944. This trend is a continuation of a unspoken pact made between American and European powers at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, according to Mandel.
"When the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were formed, there was a tacit agreement between them that the head of the World Bank would always be American and the head of the IMF would always be European, and they would always vote for one another," he said. "A number of emerging market countries said it should be one of them, but they don't have the vote."
Acceptance of Kim's nomination is considered highly likely because the United States, as the world's largest economy, has the highest percentage of the vote on the executive board. Obama's decision to nominate Kim is a step toward compromising with the demands of developing nations, Mandel said.
"He would be a person, as an American, that a number of the emerging market countries view very positively," Mandel said. "I think he has a level of credibility that maybe some of the other potential candidates did not because of his previous work."
If and when Kim leaves Dartmouth, his legacy will be "ongoing," Mandel said, citing his establishment of the Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science and the accompanying master's program.
While Kim's time at Dartmouth has prepared him to work with a "pretty large, complex organization," Mandel said the Bank presidency comes with a number of challenges.
"The World Bank is very global in nature, and it's a very large organization with people from tons of different countries with all kinds of different agendas," he said. "It's a much more bureaucratic, politically-charged organization, and navigating that will be quite different."
Mandel said President Kim will be on campus for regularly scheduled meetings at the beginning of the week and will then leave for a worldwide listening tour to gather support for his candidacy.
"He basically has to go politik," he said. "He has to go around and meet with prime ministers and secretaries of state, finance ministers and heads of government to say, Please vote for me, I'm a good guy.'"
Because the role of College president focuses more on "setting the vision" of the institution rather than day-to-day details, there is no need for an immediate replacement while Kim travels over the next several weeks, according to Mandel. In the meantime, the Board will search for an interim president. Mandel said it is a "likelihood but not a certainty" that the temporary replacement will come from within the College.
"We're going to talk to all the senior administrators and deans to try to come to the right conclusion," he said. "For the Board, it will technically be a majority vote, but there's never been a situation in my time here that we're not 95 percent in favor of something."
Kim and Geithner declined to comment by press time, according to a representative from the U.S. Treasury Department, which is handling all media inquiries regarding Kim's nomination.
