George David Woods

Template:Short description Template:Infobox officeholder George David Woods (July 27, 1901<ref name="NYT obit">Template:Cite news</ref> – August 20, 1982<ref name="NYT obit"/>) was an American investment banker and financier. He served as the fourth President of the World Bank, from January 1963 until March 1968. Prior to that he had a 46-year career in investment banking, rising to chairman of First Boston Corporation.

Early life and education

Woods was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1901.<ref name="NYT obit"/> He grew up Brooklyn, New York City, where his father, who died when Woods was three,<ref name="Kraske">Template:Cite book</ref> had moved the family to find shipyard work.<ref name="NYT obit"/>

He attended high school at Commercial High School in Brooklyn.<ref name="NYT obit"/>

Career

Investment banking

After graduating from high school, at the age of 17 Woods was employed on Wall Street as an office boy at the investment firm Harris, Forbes & Co.<ref name="NYT obit"/> At the company's urging, he attended night school in banking theory and finance,<ref name="Kraske"/> and in the firm's underwriting department he drafted prospectuses, did statistical work, and drew up contracts.<ref name="Kraske"/> in 1927, at the age of 26, he was promoted to a vice president position and given major projects.<ref name="Kraske"/> In 1930 Harris, Forbes & Co. was acquired by Chase Bank, and Woods was made vice president of the new firm.<ref name="Kraske"/>

In 1933, the firm was dissolved after the passage of the Glass–Steagall Act, and Chase transferred what remained of its securities business to the Bank of Boston's newly formed First Boston Corporation.<ref name="Kraske"/> Woods was included in the transfer and became vice president and a member of the board of First Boston Corporation.<ref name="Kraske"/>

First Boston became one of the largest investment banking firms in the United States, and Woods played a major role in that expansion.<ref name="Kraske"/> In 1947 he became one of two executive vice presidents,<ref name="Kraske"/> and in 1948 became chairman of the executive committee.<ref name="Kraske"/> In 1951 Woods became chairman of the board.<ref name="Kraske"/><ref name="NYT obit"/>

World Bank

Woods was first called to the World Bank by Eugene Black, the World Bank's president from 1949 to 1962, who was an old associate and friend from Harris, Forbes.<ref name="NYT obit"/> While at the World Bank, Black had asked him to help out on special assignments for the bank.<ref name="NYT obit"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Woods had thereby become familiar with the workings of the World Bank.<ref name="NYT obit"/> In the summer of 1962, Black asked Woods to meet with the Kennedy Administration, which subsequently nominated him for president of the World Bank, and he accepted.<ref name="NYT obit"/> He took office January 1, 1963.<ref name="WB bio">Template:Cite web</ref>

Whereas the first three World Bank presidents had focused on loans for reconstruction, Woods shifted the bank towards a primary focus on less developed countries.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> By the end of Woods's tenure, the bank was engaged in a far broader range of developmental activities than at its beginning.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Woods led a major expansion in the World Bank's lending for agriculture and for agrarian reform.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Stein p12-13"/> Woods also expanded lending for higher education, but only for technical and vocational schools.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Additional lending went to water supply, and "technical assistance".<ref name="Stein p12-13"/> The various areas of developmental loans were considered "riskier" investments than reconstruction loans, and therefore justified the significant excess profits the World Bank had been making by the early 1960s.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The main beneficiaries of the new developmental lending were India and Pakistan, rather than the newly emerging African nations.<ref name="Stein p12-13"/> From 1964 to the end of his tenure, Woods rebuffed most new requests from the newly emerging African nations.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1966, despite the General Assembly of the United Nations passing resolutions condemning the apartheid regime in South Africa and the continuing colonial subjugation of Angola and Mozambique by Portugal as violations of the U.N. charter, and despite a personal plea from U.N. Secretary General U Thant to Woods, the World Bank proceeded with a $10 million loan to Portugal and a $20 million loan to South Africa.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Woods increased the number, power, and influence of economists at the bank.<ref name="Stein p12-13">Template:Cite book</ref> In 1964 he hired Irving S. Friedman<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> as the newly created position of economic advisor to the president.<ref name="Stein p12-13"/> Friedman hired nearly 200 economists, thus increasing the overall World Bank staff by 25 percent.<ref name="Stein p12-13"/> Friedman worked to change World Bank preferences from infrastructure projects toward policy-based economic development.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The economists were instrumental in advancing American interests.<ref name="Stein p12-13"/>

Woods strongly supported increased foreign private investment in developing countries.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In his first address to the World Bank's board, he pledged to explore “all possible ways in which the Bank can help to widen and deepen the flow of private capital to the developing countries”. He added that he was convinced that countries which accept this "will achieve their development objectives more rapidly than those who do not", and "that means, to mince no words about it, giving foreign investors a fair opportunity to make attractive profits".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Additional posts

Woods was a director of The New York Times Company.<ref name="NYT obit"/> He was also one of the three trustees of the Ochs Trust, which holds a controlling interest in The New York Times Company and was established by Adolph S. Ochs, the publisher of The New York Times from 1896 until his death in 1935.<ref name="NYT obit"/>

From 1961 to 1967, Woods was a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was a member of the Commission on Population Growth and the American Future.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In addition, long after he had turned over the leadership of the First Boston Corporation of New York, Woods maintained an office in New York and was sought out by executives around the world for consultation.<ref name="NYT obit"/>

He served as a director of numerous companies during his career.<ref name="NYT obit"/>

Woods was a director of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and chairman of the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center.<ref name="NYT obit"/>

For several years he was treasurer and a director of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and helped his friend John Ringling North reorganize the circus.<ref name="NYT obit"/>

Honors

• Template:Flagu : Honorary Grand Commander of the Order of Loyalty to the Crown of Malaysia (1973)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

Woods married Louise Taraldson in 1935.<ref name="wife obit">Template:Cite news</ref> They had no children.<ref name="wife obit"/> Louise was a civic leader, and became a trustee of the Institute of International Education.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="wife obit"/>

Woods never moved to Washington DC, not even during his tenure as World Bank president.<ref name="NYT obit"/> The couple lived in Manhattan, and had a second home in Lisbon.<ref name="NYT obit"/><ref name="wife obit"/>

Woods was close to Nelson A. Rockefeller, and for a time had a home at the Rockefeller estate at Pocantico Hills, New York.<ref name="NYT obit"/>

Woods died in Lisbon in 1982 at the age of 81.<ref name="NYT obit"/> His wife died in Manhattan in 1986 at the age of 78.<ref name="wife obit"/>

External links

• Biography of George David Woods (Worldbank)