Several left-wing groups issued statements condemning the Biden administration’s decision to nominate former MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga to be president of the World Bank, declaring the situation a missed chance to nominate a candidate more qualified to tackle climate change, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
Several voices in the administration, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and climate envoy John Kerry, portrayed Banga’s Wall Street experience as an asset that would equip him to serve as a bridge between private and public interests and efficiently allocate capital, according to Bloomberg. However, progressives took issue with Banga’s lack of public-sector experience and time spent managing issues like climate change and economic inequality.
Instead of someone with “a strong record of accomplishment in public service … President Joe Biden and Secretary Yellen have literally named the Vice Chairman of a rapacious international private equity firm (General Atlantic) to take his first job ever in public service at nearly the highest level in the world possible,” said Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project in a press release Thursday. “Nothing in Banga’s resume inspires confidence that he will turn the World Bank away from a path of neocolonialism and predation by Global North corporations upon Global South countries.”
Hauser also called for the administration to “retract this nomination and simply do better.”
The administration had faced pressure from activists to nominate a woman to lead the bank, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Banga’s gender and close ties to Wall Street disappointed activists, who were hoping the administration would nominate a less typical candidate, Bloomberg reported.
The World Bank had said it would “strongly encourage” candidates who were women on Wednesday, the Financial Times reported.
Bronwen Tucker, public finance campaign co-manager at Oil Change International, a group which advocates for a “fossil free future,” criticized the nomination and called for other world leaders to block the nomination in a press release.
“Biden has chosen a planet-wrecking CEO for World Bank President,” said Tucker. “He shouldn’t be allowed to name one in the first place. This isn’t over — the rest of the world’s governments still have the opportunity to step in.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a Daily Caller News Foundation request for comment.
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