A Global Life: My Journey Among Rich and Poor, from Sydney to Wall Street to the World Bank
As president of the World Bank for a decade, James Wolfensohn tackled world poverty with a passion and energy that made him a uniquely important figure in a fundamental arena of change. Using a lifetime of experience in the banking sector, he carved a distinct path in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe for the institution that serves as the major lender to the world's poor.\ In A Global Life, Wolfensohn tells his astonishing life story in his own words. A man of surpassing imagination...
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The autobiography of the larger-than-life, visionary financier and humanitarian who led the World Bank through one of its most intense and tumultuous decades in the struggle against global poverty Publishers Weekly Now 76 years old, Wolfensohn (Voice of the World's Poor) has had a rich and varied life as an investment banker, chairman of Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, head of the World Bank, and finally advocate of peace as special envoy to the Middle East. The first third of the book is devoted to a fascinating chronicle of his early life growing up in a close-knit, middle-class Jewish family. His parents, who emigrated from Britain to Australia, faced tough financial times during the Great Depression and over-coddled the young Wolfensohn, expecting him to excel. Though he nearly flunked out of Sidney University, he ultimately earned a law degree and went on to receive an MBA at Harvard and become a U.S. citizen. He writes candidly of the mistakes he made during his long and successful career and the lessons they taught him. Married to his college sweetheart, with three children, he claims that the idea of writing this book, "grew out of a desire to leave… a record of the events that shaped me" for his adult children, and in the hope that younger readers might be encouraged to "follow at least some part of the path taken." (Oct.)
Prologue1 A Long Way from New York 12 Setting Out 253 Stepping Up 454 Harvard 695 Learning My Craft in Australia 976 The Eurodollar Revolution 1197 Becoming a Banker 1358 The Outsider 1559 Salomon Brothers and a New York-Based Career 17910 On My Own 21311 The Road to the World Bank 24312 A Difficult Entry 26713 Creativity and Change During the Clinton Years 30914 A Fresh Look at Development 33315 The Bush Years 35716 Travel as Part of the Job 37117 A New and Different Challenge 399Epilogue 441Acknowledgments 443Notes 445Index 449
\ Publishers WeeklyNow 76 years old, Wolfensohn (Voice of the World's Poor) has had a rich and varied life as an investment banker, chairman of Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, head of the World Bank, and finally advocate of peace as special envoy to the Middle East. The first third of the book is devoted to a fascinating chronicle of his early life growing up in a close-knit, middle-class Jewish family. His parents, who emigrated from Britain to Australia, faced tough financial times during the Great Depression and over-coddled the young Wolfensohn, expecting him to excel. Though he nearly flunked out of Sidney University, he ultimately earned a law degree and went on to receive an MBA at Harvard and become a U.S. citizen. He writes candidly of the mistakes he made during his long and successful career and the lessons they taught him. Married to his college sweetheart, with three children, he claims that the idea of writing this book, "grew out of a desire to leave… a record of the events that shaped me" for his adult children, and in the hope that younger readers might be encouraged to "follow at least some part of the path taken." (Oct.)\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalWolfensohn's varied accomplishments include being a successful financier at Schroders and Salomon Brothers as well as at his own firms, becoming the ninth president of the World Bank, and playing a major role in the planned withdrawal of Israel from the Gaza region. He was born in Australia to Jewish parents who emigrated from England and who often experienced financial hardships. In this memoir, Wolfensohn describes how his father's successes and failures impacted him and how they were a major influence in developing his business savvy. He also reveals aspects of his personality such as persistence, risk taking, and viewing mistakes as opportunities to show us what helped him succeed in many ventures. VERDICT Individuals with an interest in international business and the provision of aid to economically disadvantaged countries will find this book fascinating for Wolfensohn's insights, worldwide experiences, and adventures. Recommended.—Caroline Geck, Newark Public Schs., NJ\ \ \ Kirkus ReviewsThe story of the author's unlikely ascent from middle-class Australian Jewish upbringing to Wall Street wealth, president of the World Bank and Middle East peace negotiator.\ Born in 1933, Wolfensohn rose above his modest upbringing to earn a law degree at the University of Sydney and MBA at Harvard University. Always curious and talented, he learned fencing well enough to compete in the 1956 Olympic Games, served in the Royal Australian Air Force and became a talented cello player. He found world finance fascinating, especially as he tried to figure out the global wealth-poverty gap. The first half of the book frequently reads like a family album, as the author and his wife Elaine and their three children move among the cities of London, New York and Washington, D.C., because of his job shifts. The author's candor about people he respects and dislikes is refreshing, as is his frank assessment of his own strengths and shortcomings. The memoir picks up noticeably in 1995, when Wolfensohn won the approval of President Clinton and other leaders to become president of the influential and controversial World Bank. Since the end of World War II, the World Bank had tried to help impoverished nations with infrastructure such as roads and dams, and had also played a role, along withitsrelated agency, theInternational Monetary Fund, in curing the economies of debtor nations. Wolfensohn tells of resistance he faced inside and outside the World Bank as he tried to emphasize the elimination of poverty, improved treatment of subjugatedwomen and environmental degradation in dozens of nations on multiple continents. The author served his second five-year term as bank president during the George W. Bush administration, and in general contrasts that administration unfavorably compared to Clinton's. After leaving the bank presidency, Wolfensohn served as an envoy trying to broker Israeli disengagement from Gaza, an effort that went poorly by his own admission, in part due to the doctrinaire positions of almost everybody involved.\ An often engaging memoir that is especially strong in its insights into global poverty.\ \ \
