Series - Chief of Staff and Middle Office files

Identity area

Reference code

WB IBRD/IDA EXC-13-04

Title

Chief of Staff and Middle Office files

Date(s)

  • July 1995 - July 2005 (Creation)

Level of description

Series

Extent and medium

5.65 linear feet of textual records

Context area

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Records were transferred to the World Bank Group Archives in 2010 along with similar records created during the tenure of President Wolfensohn?s successor, Paul D. Wolfowitz.

Content and structure area

Scope and content

This series consists of records created and received by the Office of the President's (EXC) Middle Office. The Middle Office was responsible for managing the president's activities, including mission travel, meetings, and appearances; this included confirming trip dates, planning trips, and planning briefing books and pre-trip briefings. The office also supported the president's participation in speaking engagements and press conferences, including speechwriting. It also received and managed photographs, press clippings, and other memorabilia. The president's chief of staff, who headed the Middle Office, played an advisory role to the president.

Series consists of chronological files of Rachel Lomax who served in the role of President Wolfensohn's chief of staff from September 1995 to August 1996. Records primarily date from September and October 1995. A small number of materials date from July 1995. Lomax's chronological files primarily consist of incoming correspondence addressed directly to Lomax or received by her as courtesy or for her information. Lomax organized her chronological folders according to recipient and/or broad groupings of WBG organizational entities such as vice presidents, executive directors, Office of External Relations (EXT), and Office of the President (EXC). Topics contained in each of these groupings often overlap. They include: 1995 Board of Governors Annual Meeting planning; planning for other meetings involving President Wolfensohn, including the Development Committee and meetings and retreats with executive directors; planning for President Wolfensohn's mission travel; responses to correspondence and invitations received by the president; drafting speeches for President Wolfensohn; division of responsibilities in EXC; debt and debt relief; WBG operations, specifically potentially controversial projects; organizational restructuring or reorganization; and various other topics. Records relating to EXT and EXT Vice President Mark Malloch Brown primarily consist of press clippings forwarded to Lomax by EXT, but also include records relating to various activities of President Wolfensohn, including meetings, speeches, and press availability.

A small amount of correspondence between Lomax and external individuals is also included. This correspondence primarily relates to information sharing and invitations to events, although some relates to various topics involving President Wolfensohn and the Office of the President.

A chronological file relating to Josie Bassinette, assistant in the Office of the President, is also included. Records relate to topics in her purview and primarily take the form of internal and external correspondence. Bassinette's areas of responsibility included vice presidential unit (VPU) meetings, Board of Governors Annual Meetings, Board of Executive Directors and Secretary's Department, Controllers, personnel, legal, and WBG operations. Correspondence dates from January 1996 to October 1996. A small amount of memoranda and notes to President Wolfensohn are also included.

Also included in this series are subject files stored in the Middle Office classified as "strictly confidential". It is likely that most of these records were created or received by Xavier Coll, who served as President Wolfensohn's chief of staff from December 2001 to October 2004.

Subject file records date from 1999 to 2005 (predominant April 2001 to December 2004) and cover a number of topics in various forms, including: a draft work program for the faith and ethics agenda; correspondence andupdates from the WBG Office of Ethics and Business Conduct, Department of Institutional Integrity (INT), and Conflict Resolution System; briefing materials for President Wolfensohn's meetings with executive directors, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) staff and from meetings on the WBG anti-corruption strategy. Records related to performance evaluation of WBG vice presidents and EXC staff, including managing directors, are also included as are records related to the hiring of the MIGA Executive Vice President in 2003. A Memorandum for the Record authored by WBG Managing Director Mamphela Ramphele is included and consists

of a survey of her contributions to the WBG and a selection of speeches and articles authored by Ramphele. Other topics discussed in the subject files include: correspondence unit activities, presidential succession, presidential security, EXC budget, and 2002 and 2004 WBG staff surveys.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Original order has been maintained. Records are arranged chronologically. Records received alongside records in this series that were created or received during the tenure of President Wolfensohn?s successor, Paul Wolfowitz, have been arranged elsewhere in the Records of the Office of the President fonds.

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Records in this series are subject to either the World Bank Policy on Access to Information, the IFC Access to Information Policy or the MIGA Access to Information Policy.

Conditions governing reproduction

Records are subject to the Copyright Policy of the World Bank Group.

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

Language and script notes

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Finding aids

An inventory list is available here.

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Related units of description

  • See the various series in this subfonds containing briefing materials for the meetings, events and other engagements participated in by President Wolfensohn and supported by the Office of the President's (EXC) Middle Office. These include Annual and Spring Meetings briefing materials (WB IBRD/IDA EXC-08), Speaking engagement briefing materials (WB IBRD/IDA EXC-09), Meeting and event briefing materials (WB IBRD/IDA EXC-10), Travel briefing materials (WB IBRD/IDA EXC-11), and Media coverage and engagement (WB IBRD/IDA EXC-12).

  • See Records of the Office of External Relations (WB IBRD/IDA EXT), specifically External Relations Vice President and Director records (WB IBRD/IDA EXT-13).

Related descriptions

Notes area

Alternative identifier(s)

Access points

Subject access points

Place access points

Name access points

Genre access points

Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

Rules and/or conventions used

Internal World Bank Group Archives rules based on ISAD(G).

Disclosure status

Level of detail

Dates of creation revision deletion

10 April 2025

Language(s)

Script(s)

Sources

Accession area