SAIS Reports
April - May 2008

World Bank’s Zoellick Is Commencement Speaker

Robert B. Zoellick, the 11th president of the World Bank Group, will be commencement speaker when the SAIS class of ’08 graduates May 22 at DAR Constitution Hall.

Zoellick’s distinguished international career spans three decades of work in the public and private sectors. Prior to becoming World Bank Group president in July 2007, Zoellick served as vice chairman international of Goldman Sachs Group and managing director and chairman of Goldman Sachs’ Board of International Advisors.

In 2005–06 he held the No. 2 position at the U.S. State Department—deputy secretary of State—where he was chief operating officer and policy alternate for the secretary of State. Zoellick also served in the president’s cabinet from 2001 to 2005 as U.S. trade representative, where he forged an activist approach to free trade at the global, regional and bilateral levels while securing support for open markets with the U.S. Congress and a broad coalition of domestic constituencies. Other career highlights include senior positions at Fannie Mae, the Treasury Department and the White House.

Zoellick has served on several nonprofit boards over the years, including those of the Council on Foreign Relations, the European Institute, the Peterson Institute of International Economics and The Johns Hopkins University American Institute for Contemporary German Studies.

“The choice of commencement speaker is made by the graduating class, ably represented by its Student Government representatives,” said SAIS Dean Jessica P. Einhorn. “I believe they saw—correctly—that Bob Zoellick would be an outstanding speaker because his life of highly successful engagement in the public, private and nonprofit sectors held the promise of a commencement address that would be meaningful to our students as they leave SAIS and set out on different paths of international involvement.”

In announcing Zoellick’s selection as commencement speaker, Student Government Association president Nancy Tran wrote: “The SGA believes Mr. Zoellick exemplifies the blend of expertise and experience that lies at the very heart of the SAIS education. We are proud he has agreed to be the commencement speaker for the class of 2008.”

Zoellick received his B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1975. He went on to earn a J.D. from Harvard Law School and an M.P.P. from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1981.

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