The Trump White House is considering Indra Nooyi, the former Indian American CEO of Pepsi, to head the World Bank as president to succeed Jim Yong Kim, who has announced he is stepping down in February.
The New York Times, which first reported this move, said Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and adviser, had floated Nooyi’s name for the position and that it was not yet clear if the former Pepsi CEO will accept,if offered.
Ivanka Trump is among the three people conducting the search for a successor to Kim, who resigned earlier this month. The other two are Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.
Others in the race include David Malpass, the under secretary of treasury, and Ray Washburne, who is heading the Oversea Private Investment Corporation. Both of them had served as advisers to President Donald Trump’s campaign.
With Ivanka Trump’s backing her, however, Nooyi could stand the best chance, given how close the president is to his first daughter, who has called Nooyi a “mentor”.
She wrote in a tweet last August, “The great @IndraNooyi is stepping down as PepsiCo CEO, after 12 yrs. Indra, you are a mentor + inspiration to so many, myself included. I am deeply grateful for your friendship. Thank you for your passionate engagement on issues that benefit the people of this country, and beyond.”
It wasn’t clear yet if Nooyi will take the nomination. She had faced criticism for joining the president’s business advisory council that was disbanded later. And there had been no statement from the White House confirming the report, or denying it.
A nominee of the United States is guaranteed to get the position. The World Bank has been headed always by an American — Kim, the outgoing president is Korean-American — in an informal arrangement that leaves the sister world body, the International Monetary Fund to Europeans, the current managing director Christine Lagarde is French and succeeded another French, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.