Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- July 1995 - July 2005 (Creation)
Level of description
Series
Extent and medium
5.65 linear feet of textual records
Context area
Repository
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
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
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