Jim Yong Kim (born December 8, 1959), also known as Kim Yong (), is an American physician and anthropologist who was the president of the World Bank from 2012 to 2019.
Kim chaired the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and was co-founder and executive director of Partners In Health before becoming president of Dartmouth College from 2009 to 2012. He was the first Asian American president of an Ivy League institution.
Kim was named the world's 50th most powerful person by Forbes Magazine's List of The World's Most Powerful People in 2013.
Early life Born in Seoul, South Korea in 1959, Jim Yong Kim immigrated with his family to the U.S. at the age of five and grew up in Muscatine, Iowa. His father taught dentistry at the University of Iowa, while his mother received her PhD in philosophy. Kim attended Muscatine High School, where he was valedictorian, class president, and played both quarterback for the football team and point guard on the basketball team. After a year and a half at the University of Iowa, he transferred to Brown University, where he graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in human biology in 1982. He earned an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1991, and a PhD in anthropology at Harvard University in 1993.Falkenberg, Kai, "First Responder", Forbes, November 16, 2011.
Career
Partners in Health (1987–2003) Kim, Paul Farmer, Todd McCormack, Thomas J. White, and Ophelia Dahl co-founded Partners In Health (PIH) in 1987. The organization began with new, community-focused health care programs in Haiti, which provided treatments based on local needs and trained community members to implement them. By the early 1990s, the program in Haiti was serving more than 100,000 people. It achieved success treating infectious diseases at low cost, spending $150 to $200 to cure tuberculosis patients in their homes, treatment that would have cost $15,000 to $20,000 in a U.S. hospital. Kim was instrumental in designing treatment protocols and making deals for cheaper, more effective drugs.
In 1994, PIH expanded its model into Peru. By 1998, successful results curing both common and serious ailments prompted the World Health Organization to embrace the model and support the adaptation of community-based care for impoverished communities around the world. Particular success in treating multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) prompted international organizations to rededicate efforts to the eradication of the disease, and in June 2002, the World Health Organization adopted prescriptions for dealing with the disease that were virtually the same as PIH had used in Peru. Kim's work with PIH to treat MDR-TB was the first large-scale attempt to treat the disease in a poor country, and the efforts have been replicated in more than 40 countries around the world."Office of the President – Biography of Jim Yong Kim" , Dartmouth College website.Hayoun, Massoud, "How Jim Yong Kim, Obama's World Bank Pick, Changed Global Health Aid", The Atlantic, March 23, 2012.
PIH employs more than 18,000 people in 11 countries. Kim left the organization as executive director in 2003."Partners in Health History" , pih.org.Satchell, Michael, “Wiping out TB and AIDS”, U.S. News & World Report, October 31, 2005.Gustin, Sam, "Obama’s World Bank Pick, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, Links Global Health and Economic Development", TIME Magazine, March 23, 2012
Kim's work with Partners in Health is documented in the 2017 film Bending the Arc.
World Health Organization (2003–2006) Kim left PIH in 2003 to join the World Health Organization (WHO) as an adviser to the director-general. In March 2004, he was appointed as director of WHO's HIV/AIDS department, after having success creating programs to fight the disease at PIH. Kim oversaw all of WHO's work related to HIV/AIDS, focusing on initiatives to help developing countries scale up their treatment, prevention, and care programs. This included an ambitious "3x5 initiative" designed to put three million people in developing countries on AIDS treatment by the end of 2005. The goal was not met until 2007, but according to the WHO, served to push the treatment strategy for AIDS in Africa further and faster than could have otherwise been hoped."MIT Sloan Biography" , MIT Sloan Lecturer Biography."Leading Voices Lecturer Jim Yong Kim", Dartmouth Now, June 23, 2011. As of 2012, the program has treated more than 7 million Africans with HIV."A biographical snapshot of Jim Yong Kim, Obama’s choice to head the World Bank", Associated Press, March 23, 2012.Boseley, Sarah, “WHO says Aids drug target unlikely to be hit”, The Guardian, June 30, 2005.
Harvard University (1993–2009) Beginning in 1993, Kim was a lecturer at Harvard Medical School, eventually holding professorships in medicine, social medicine and human rights. At the time of his departure in 2009, Kim was chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health,“Introducing Dr. Jim Yong Kim, 17th President of Dartmouth” Dartmouth College website. known internally as "The Four Pillars" a term and concept taken from his earlier WHO work with HIV/AIDS (the 3x5 program).
During his time at Harvard, Kim published numerous articles for leading academic and scientific journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Science, and others; and contributed to several books. An expert on tuberculosis, Kim also chaired or was a member of a number of committees on international TB policy.
Dartmouth College (2009–2012) In March 2009, Kim was named the 17th president of Dartmouth College, becoming the first Asian-American president of an Ivy League institution. He oversaw the development of several innovative programs at Dartmouth, utilizing his past experience in health care and international affairs.
In January 2010, Kim helped partner Dartmouth students and faculty with Partners In Health and other organizations to respond to the devastating earthquake in Haiti, forming the Dartmouth Haiti Response. The initiative resulted in over $1 million in donations, the delivery of 18 tons of medical supplies and 25 volunteer medical professionals to Haiti, as well as hundreds of student volunteers contributing on campus.Fischer, Karin, "Dartmouth's President, a Global Health Leader, Offers Perspectives on Helping Haiti", The Chronicle on Higher Education, January 14, 2010.Barber, Bonnie, "Dartmouth Rallies to Help Haiti" , Dartmouth Now, March 1, 2010. In April 2010, Kim launched the National College Health Improvement Project (NCHIP), which convenes a number of expert institutions to develop quantitative methods to address student health issues. The project launched its inaugural program, an effort to address binge drinking, in April 2011.NCHIP, "The National College Health Improvement Project".Blumberg, Joseph, "Dartmouth Engineering Students Help Tackle Binge Drinking", Dartmouth>Now, November 29, 2011. In May 2010, Kim helped secure a $35 million anonymous grant to establish the Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science. The Center creates a groundbreaking new field of graduate study, fostering international collaboration between researchers and medical practitioners to design, implement, and scale new models of high-quality low-cost care."$35-Million Gift to Dartmouth to Create Center on Health-Care Delivery Science", The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 17, 2010."The missing piece in health care reform: health care delivery science" , Dartmouth News, May 17, 2010. In 2012, following considerable concern"Annual Security and Fire Safety Report" , Dartmouth College, September 2011. and an extended effort by Kim to address sexual violence on campus, Dartmouth adopted a new campus-wide initiative to educate students on the importance of bystander intervention in sexual assault cases as part of a larger Sexual Assault Awareness Program.Johnston, Sophia, "Program combats sexual violence" , The Dartmouth, February 17, 2012.Kekeh, Nicole, “Dartmouth President Is Surprise Pick To Lead The World Bank”, Forbes, March 23, 2012.
Controversies during tenure In 2011, Kim was criticized for refusing to release the college's budget, prompting the passage of a resolution by faculty demanding more details.Acosta, Amelia, "Faculty votes to see budget report" , The Dartmouth, May 10, 2011.Ulrich, Ashley,"SA supports faculty’s call for budget details" , The Dartmouth, October 19, 2011. He answered this criticism by releasing a large supplementary report on the budget and holding a public meeting with faculty, who expressed satisfaction with the response.Owen, Tom, "Faculty receives new college budget info" , The Dartmouth, October 25, 2011. But he did not address a Student Assembly request for access to information about all budget items exceeding $10,000. In 2011, a handful of editorials appeared in Dartmouth's student newspaper expressing dissatisfaction with Kim's presidency, with one calling him "unpopular among many students these days."Blair, Peter, "Blair: K.D.S." , Opinion, The Dartmouth, April 4, 2011.Kornberg, Josh, "Kornberg: Wail to the Chief" , Opinion, The Dartmouth, March 28, 2011 His leadership was also criticized in the wake of a hazing scandal, which resulted in charges against the fraternity and the creation of a task force to address hazing amid comments from some that Kim did not spend enough time on campus.Ulrich, Ashley, "College charges SAE for hazing violations" , The Dartmouth, March 5, 2012.Carmichael, Mary, "World Bank nod draws praise for Kim, unsettles Dartmouth", Boston Globe, March 23, 2012. After he announced that he would leave Dartmouth for the World Bank if elected, the student body president called Kim's presidency an "aberration" and a failure.Yoeli, Max, "Image Over Impact ", Opinion, The Dartmouth, March 29, 2012. Forbes also criticized Kim's presidency, calling it "disappointing" and a "cautionary tale" to other "me-first" leaders.Solomon, Brian. "Me-First Leadership: Jim Yong Kim's Unfulfilled Promise At Dartmouth." Forbes. 3/23/2012.
World Bank presidency (2012–2019)
On March 23, 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama announced his nomination of Kim for president of the World Bank. That same day Kim sent a letter addressed to the Dartmouth community stating that the position was "one of the most critical institutions fighting poverty and providing assistance to developing countries in the world today. After much reflection, I have accepted this nomination to national and global service" and that "if I am elected, our Board will take appropriate steps to ensure continuity of leadership and determine the timing of a search. For now, I remain president of Dartmouth."
On April 16, 2012, the World Bank officially elected Kim president. He was the first Bank leader whose professional background is not in the political or financial sectors, and the first to have previous experience personally tackling health issues in developing countries.