Robert L. Garner

ROBERT L. GARNER

President/Executive Vice President, IFC 1956-1961

Robert L. Garner was appointed President of IFC by its Board of Directors on July 24, 1956. He holds the distinction of being the only person to hold the position of President of IFC without also being President of the World Bank. All of Mr. Garner’s successors have been titled "Executive Vice President," with the President of the Bank being President of IFC as well.

Mr. Garner was an ardent believer in the role of private enterprise. Addressing the inaugural meeting of IFC’s Board of Governors on November 15, 1956, he said, "I believe deeply that the most dynamic force in producing a better life for people, and a more worthy life, comes from the initiative of the individual—the opportunity to create, to produce, to achieve for himself and his family—each to the best of his individual talents ...."

In paying a tribute to Mr. Garner at the 1961 Annual Meetings in Vienna, just before his retirement, World Bank's President Eugene Black said, "I want to say a word in appreciation of a man who is about to leave our immediate circle, a man who has done perhaps as much as, if not more than, any single individual to make possible the record of the World Bank and its affiliated organizations. I refer to Mr. Robert Garner…. In 1947 Mr. Garner left a lucrative and comfortable position in industry to become Vice President of the World Bank. For the next nine years he worked tirelessly to build up a competent professional staff and to fashion sound and suitable policies for a new venture into international banking.

"He presided over the birth of the International Finance Corporation and nursed it through its inevitable growing pains. He was a pioneer and imparted to those fortunate enough to work with him something of his own indomitable spirit.”