James Wolfensohn

James Wolfensohn was the 9th President of the World Bank and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Like many Bildergers, he claims to be an environmentalist but, while at the helm of the World Bank, he supervised the lending of large sums for oil exploration, road, large dams, and the like. The Bank also promoted harsh "structural adjustment programs," pension privatization measures, and other attacks on the poor and working class.

About his personal fortune, the New York Times of September 14, 1997 said: "He enjoys the trapping of great wealth, like a private jet and a lavish vacation home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming."

Wolfensohn was born in Sydney, Australia. In 1959, he received an MBA from Harvard Business School. He then he rose very rapidly in the financial world and developed a reputation as being smart and ruthless. He held high posts in brokerage and investment firms in Australia from 1959 to 1967, when he moved to London as a top officer of the Henry Schroder investment banking group. Concern for the poor does not seem to have been a priority while climbing the corporate ladder.

In 1970 he became head of Schroder's operation in New York, a post he held through 1976. He then became an executive partner in Salomon Brothers, the hard-charging bond and investment house. At Salomon he played a key role in the bailout of the Chrysler Corporation by the United States government. His Chrysler play brought him into the world of official policy in Washington, where he caught the eye of World Bank President Robert McNamara. Rumored to be on the short list as McNamara's successor, Wolfensohn speedily arranged to become a U.S. citizen so as best to qualify for the post.

When the Bank passed him up, he left Salomon in 1981 to set up his own firm, James D. Wolfensohn Inc. The new firm was a key player in the hot mergers and acquisitions game on Wall Street during the 1980's (the firm has since been bought by Banker's Trust). Wolfensohn built up his own portfolio along the way and by the end of the decade, he was a millionaire many times over and a close compatriot of the Rockefeller clan.