Bush Names Zoellick to Head World Bank

U.S. President George W. Bush Wednesday nominated former U.S. trade chief Robert Zoellick to head the World Bank, calling him a committed internationalist.

Bob Zoellick has had a long and distinguished career in diplomacy and development economics. It has prepared him well for this new assignment, Bush said.

Zoellick, 53, whose five-year term must be approved by the bank’s 24-member board, would succeed Paul Wolfowitz, who agreed to resign effective June 30 after a bank panel concluded he had broken ethics rules in arranging a generous pay raise for his girlfriend, bank employee Shaha Ali Riza.

The board said it expected to make its decision before Wolfowitz resigns.

Zoellick, a vice chairman of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., acknowledged the bank’s recent frustrations, anxieties and tensions, but said the global poverty-fighting institution must put yesterday’s discord behind us and to focus on the future together.

I believe that the World Bank’s best days are still to come, he added.