WB names Baird RI director

WB names Baird RI director

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones): The World Bank Friday named Mark Baird as its new country director for Indonesia as part of a wider restructuring of senior management.

Baird replaces Dennis de Tray who is transferring to World Bank headquarters in Washington this month.

A New Zealand national, Baird has been vice president of strategic resource management at the bank since February 1997 and has served previously on assignments in Indonesia and India.

World Bank President James Wolfensohn announced a host of other new appointments in a statement, including that of Peter Woicke as a managing director of the bank.

Woicke will take responsibility for "ensuring the coherence of our private sector work across the bank group" and will retain his current position as vice president of the International Finance Corp.

Reporting to Woicke will be Nemat Shafik, who has been appointed vice president of infrastructure and private sector development while Manuel Conthe is to take on a new position as vice president for financial operations, moving from his position as chief economic counselor to the European Union in Brussels.

Just as the Brazilian crisis takes another twist the World Bank's vice president for its Latin American and Caribbean office, Shahid Javed Burki, is to retire after 25 years with the bank and will be replaced by David de Ferranti, head of the World Bank's human development network.