| Biography | Alden Winship "Tom" Clausen (February 17, 1923 January 21, 2013) was President of the World Bank from 1981 to 1986. He was also President and CEO of Bank of America in 1970 and again in 1986.
Clausen was born in Hamilton, Illinois, to a family of Norwegian ancestry, and graduated from Carthage College in 1944 with a B.A., in 1970 with a LL.D.; from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1949 with a LL.B.; and from Harvard Universitys Advanced Management Program in 1966.
Clausen was certified to practice law after graduating from the University of Minnesota Law School, but instead he got a job at the BankAmerica in Los Angeles, California. He became Vice President in 1961, Senior Vice President in 1965, Executive Vice President in 1968, Vice Chairman of the Board in 1969, and President and CEO in 1970.
In 1981 Clausen was appointed President of the World Bank. He was replaced 5 years later by Barber Conable.
His term as World Bank president saw the massive scaling up of structural adjustment lending that had been introduced under his predecessor Robert McNamara.
Clausen returned to Bank of America as Chairman and CEO in 1986 but stepped back from an active executive role in 1990 to be Chairman of the Executive Committee. During his time at the bank he helped it grow to be the biggest commercial bank in the United States. |