Indian American Ajay Banga Named World Bank President by Executive Board
Ajay Banga will lead the World Bank for the next five years, starting 2 June 2023.
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Ajay Banga, the Indian-origin former CEO of Mastercard, was appointed as president of the World Bank on Wednesday, 3 May.
Details: Banga was the unanimous choice of a 25-member executive board, according to a tweet posted by the global financial organisation.
He succeeds former US treasury official David Malpass
Banga's five-year tenure will begin from 2 June.
The job: Banga has his work cut out as the India-born finance and development specialist will be incharge of prepping the World Bank to take on worldwide crises such as climate change and more, Moneycontrol reported.
POTUS pick: Banga was nominated for the top job by US President Joe Biden in February this year.
"He is uniquely equipped to lead the World Bank at this critical moment in history," Biden had said.
The world leader said that he backed Banga due to the latter's "critical experience mobilising public-private resources to tackle the most urgent challenges of our time, including climate change."
Backstory: The Indian American executive was born into a Sikh family in Pune, where his father, who served in the Indian Army, was posted.
Banga has an economics degree from Delhi University’s St Stephen's College and is a post-graduate from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad.
He worked at Nestle for 13 years and then PepsiCo.
But it was Banga’s stint at Mastercard that brought him into the limelight as one of the most prominent Indian American executives in the US.