13 July 2010
No. 2 official at IDB resigns after approval of a $70 billion capital increase and re-election of President Luis Alberto Moreno
by Sandrine Rastello, July 8 (Bloomberg)
Daniel Zelikow, the No. 2 official at the Inter-American Development Bank, quit yesterday, a day after the lender’s board of governors voted to give President Luis Alberto Moreno a second five-year term.
Zelikow, who had served as executive vice president at the bank since March 2007, said he told Moreno last week of his intention to resign, according to an e-mail obtained by Bloomberg News from Zelikow to IDB employees. He didn’t say what he plans to do next.
“I told President Moreno before I arrived at the bank that I would leave when I felt that others could contribute more in my role,” Zelikow wrote. “That time has now come.”
Zelikow is a former managing director of JPMorgan Securities Inc.’s government institutions group and was a deputy assistant secretary during the 1990s at the U.S. Treasury Department.
In a separate e-mail to employees, Moreno said that Julie Katzman, the general manager of the bank’s multilateral investment fund, will be the interim executive vice president until a replacement is found.
Moreno was the only candidate for the post and had gotten public backing ahead of the vote from countries including Brazil, Argentina and Canada -- three of the bank’s four biggest shareholders. Moreno, a former Colombian ambassador to the U.S., was elected IDB president in 2005.
The IDB is the largest multinational funding provider to Latin America and the Caribbean. The U.S. is the biggest shareholder.
The Washington-based lender got backing in March for a $70 billion capital increase to enable lending of $12 billion a year. It reported a loss of almost $1 billion in 2008 as a result of mark-to-market losses on mortgage and asset-backed securities.