Joe Biden, President of the United States, has nominated Mastercard CEO, Ajay Banga, as the new World Bank President, according to recent reports. Biden made the revelations on Thursday and praised Banga for possessing the expertise to handle global challenges like climate change.
The news comes in the backdrop of David Malpass, the erstwhile World Bank President appointed by Donald Trump, announcing plans to relinquish his role of helming the 189-nation poverty reduction agency. His five-year term was slated to end in April 2024.
“Ajay is uniquely equipped to lead the World Bank at this critical moment in history. He has spent more than three decades building and managing successful, global companies that create jobs and bring investment to developing economies, and guiding organisations through periods of fundamental change,” Biden said in a statement.
Addressing the effects of climate change is the primary concern of the multilateral bank with leading climate change experts urging the US government to take advantage of Malpass’ departure to overhaul the institution which is being increasingly accused as being belligerent to poorer nations.
“Banga has a proven track record managing people and systems, and partnering with global leaders around the world to deliver results. He also has critical experience mobilizing public-private resources to tackle the most urgent challenges of our time, including climate change,” the US president added.
Michael Miebach, CEO of Mastercard, congratulated Banga in the following LinkedIn post:
Ajay Banga, presently Vice Chairman at private equity firm General Atlantic, possesses more than 30 years of business experience, having served many roles at Mastercard, Kraft Foods, Red Cross, and Dow Inc. The 63-year-old executive, who was awarded the Padma Shri in 2016, is the first Indian-origin individual to be nominated as the World Bank President.
The following is a list of Indian- origin CEOs leading global entities:
Sundar Pichai – Google
Satya Nadella – Microsoft
Arvind Krishna – IBM
Shantanu Narayen – Adobe
Iven Menezes – Diagoe
C S Venkatakrishnan – Barclays
Raj Subramaniam – FedEx
L Narasimhan – Starbucks
Anjali Sud – Vimeo
Revathi Advaithi – Flex
Sanjay Mehrotra – Micron
Jayshree Ullal – Arista Networks
Sandeep Mathrani – WeWork
Vasant Narsimhan – Novartis