At a time when Australia is desperately trying to push one of our own to lead a world economic forum, it’s worth remembering James Wolfensohn, our most influential global financial figure.
Aged 86, his death this week marks a good moment to recall the man who not only rose to the top of Wall Street at a time when few Australians made it there but also became head of the World Bank, shaping international policy at a crucial time in history.
He was the bank’s president from 1995 to 2005, after which he was made special envoy to Gaza.
Long before it became fashionable he used the forum to fight corruption and focus on developing countries. From rescuing Chrysler from bankruptcy during his days running Salomon Brothers to rescuing the credibility of the World Bank, he was probably the least well-known, most powerful Australian we have produced.
His stellar network of clients and friends included everyone from Rupert Murdoch to Paul Keating. Such was his personal and professional appeal.
I recall one interview I did with him in 1989 where he defended then-treasurer Keating. It appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald under the headline ‘Stop kicking Keating’.
There are plenty of lengthy obits about his long and distinguished career but as someone who met him a number of times over the years and interviewed him in his heyday here are some personal reflections.
My first impression of Wolfensohn was sitting in his New York office waiting to interview him for the first time in 1986. I was transfixed by the most exquisite artworks, which I later learned were by Australia’s Fred Williams.
His love and championing of the arts was another side to the tough financial figure and justified his reputation as a true renaissance man. (And, for good measure, don’t forget the Sydney-born and raised Wolfensohn was even an Olympic fencer in his youth.)
In person, he was the very definition of urbane and still retained an understated Australian charm despite rising to such lofty heights.
He not only promoted Australian culture abroad but headed such American institutions as The Kennedy Centre and Carnegie Hall where he held his famous, once-a-decade birthday celebrations. He raised $60 million to rebuild Carnegie Hall.
His work with the arts even earned him an honorary knighthood from the Queen. But his greatest legacy will be his work renewing the World Bank, a job he achieved thanks to his own brilliance and tenacity.
This article was posted in Crickey on 26 November 2020
Janine Perrett has been a journalist, broadcaster and commentator on business and politics for four decades working in newspapers, radio and TV here and in the US.
Comments
2 responses to “Remembering the financial brilliance of James Wolfensohn”
Thank you for a wider view of this rare, once in a lifetime man, much appreciated.
I remember this outstanding Australian Citizen, and took a great deal of notice of his humanitarian work within World Bank, he restored its integrity at the time. Economically gifted he could walk both sides of the road as well as the policy side of the argument and understood the ramifications and risks associated with them.
What a shame that similar ‘polymaths’ chose to act differently to this man, with similar curiosity and capabilities, as we surely need grounded, level headed people who can discuss the issues, act with passion and compassion, gain social licence and remain who you are without the airs and graces that many today falsely
adopt.
Vale James Wolfensohn.
Thanks for the personal memories.
One significant initiative of his while at the World Bank has not been mentioned in the US obituaries. It was about re-focussing the Bank directly on poverty reduction (rather than, broadly, infrastructure financing).
He supported very strongly financial capital for this poverty reduction, through the Bank’s lending for micro-credit financing intended for the poorest of the world’s poor. He engaged Professor Muhammad Yunus, then of Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank to advise the World Bank.
At that time, the World Bank’s minimum loan size was US$50 million, whereas micro-credit lending is in amounts of $50. That gap represented the different perspectives between the World Bank in Washington and the poorest of the world’s poor in rural Bangladesh.
More details can be found in the Australian Financial Review of Tuesday 12 September 1995 – headlined “The world is banking on the World Bank”.