World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim unexpectedly resigned on Monday, more than three years before his term ends in 2022, amid differences with the Trump administration over climate change and the need for more development resources.
Kim, nominated by former U.S. President Barack Obama for two five-year terms, had pushed financing for green energy projects and largely dropped support for coal power investments, but had avoided public clashes with the Trump administration, which has made reviving the U.S. coal sector a priority.
Kim told World Bank employees in an email that he was leaving the world’s largest lender and donor to poor and middle-income countries on Feb. 1 to join a private-sector firm focused on infrastructure investments in the developing world.
“The opportunity to join the private sector was unexpected, but I’ve concluded that this is the path through which I will be able to make the largest impact on major global issues like climate change and the infrastructure deficit in emerging markets,” Kim said.
Kim said details about his new job would be released at a later date.
Two people familiar with Kim’s shock announcement to the World Bank executive board said he was leaving of his own accord and was “not pushed out” by the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump, however, will wield strong influence in choosing Kim’s successor as the United States holds a controlling share of the World Bank’s voting rights.
The bank president has traditionally been an American chosen by the U.S. administration, but some of the multilateral lender’s 189 member countries could mount a new challenge with alternative candidates. Korean-American Kim faced challengers from Nigeria and Colombia when he was first nominated in 2012.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury, which oversees the U.S. voting interest in the World Bank said: “We appreciate Mr. Kim’s service to the World Bank,” adding that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin “looks forward to working with his fellow governors in selecting a new leader.”
