Inter-American Development Bank: The edict of Nancy

Some say IDB number two Nancy Birdsall has split Latin America's own development bank from top to bottom, driving through World Bank-style reforms and wiping clean the corporate memory. But after nearly three years, she seems to have won the war, if not the hearts and minds of the organization. Steven Irvine reports.

Almost a year ago this month, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) said goodbye to staff association president Isabel Larson, after 30 years’ loyal service. Staff and guests at a ceremony in the bank’s huge glass-roofed atrium included IDB president Enrique Iglesias and vice-president Nancy Birdsall, who in the past two years has conducted the biggest upheaval in the IDB’s 37-year history. Birdsall probably expected fond words and perhaps a few tears from Larson.

If so, Larson must have surprised her.

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