Actually, two former heads of IFC have written books about their experiences.
Robert L. Garner, who served as the first chief executive of IFC from 1956 to 1961 self-published an autobiography entitled, "This is the Way It Was." The book, a charmingly discursive and personal account of his life and early days at the Bank and IFC, is short on development theory and research findings, but long on "boyhood summers" in Mississippi, homespun wisdom, name-dropping, and telling anecdotes. Garner recounts, for example, having to discipline one of the early directors of IFC by "slapping his ears back." He also discusses his own estimable reputation as a tough guy. "Some of my frank associates have commented from time to time that I was a tough executive. Foreigners with whom I dealt more than once remarked that I was the toughest man in the in the international financial field. I am not particularly proud of this reputation, but, like a doctor, one sometimes has to use the knife. Despite the opinion of some of my friends, I do not enjoy being tough. I'd much rather deal with people pleasantly."
William Ryrie, Executive Vice President of IFC from 1984 to 1994, wrote a book entitled, "First World, Third World." During Ryrie's tenure, IFC grew dramatically, expanding its annual investment approvals from $400 million to more than $2 billion and increasing its portfolio from $1.4 billion to more than $6 billion. IFC also laid several foundations for future growth during this period, issuing its own bonds for the first time and achieving a triple-A credit rating, securing a $1 billion capital increase from its shareholders, pioneering the creation of equity funds for the emerging markets, and markedly expanding the Corporation's loan syndications and financial sector investments, among other efforts. IFC staff may be especially interested in Ryrie's chapters 7 and 8, where he reflects on IFC's role in the larger development agenda and gives some of his first-hand impressions about the corporate culture. "The core of the IFC are the investment officers [who] are able and creative. They have a good opinion of themselves, too," Ryrie quips. Investment officers are "motivated by a strong spark of idealism, although they do not display it very publicly. The appeal of being able to use high professional skills not only to make money but to do some good in the world is strong, especially to young people."
