Zoellick to fix the mess that Wolfowitz left behind

Bob Zoellick is likely to take over where Paul Wolfowitz left off. If elected by the World Bank board, Zoellick will become its chief on June 30th after Wolfowitz steps down.

I see Zoellick as a relatively non-ideological person. He is more of a pragmatist in the image of former Secretary of State James Baker who brought Zoellick into the Reagan administration in 1985. As Baker told Bloomberg News, "Zoellick is a man who gets things done."

And Zoellick will need to get things done at the World Bank -- specifically fix all the damage that Wolfowitz created. Baker thinks Zeollick "will be able to rebuild and repair relationships to the extent that they have been frayed by the last two years."

Although I don't think the World Bank is very important in the grand scheme of things, I do think it helps the perception of America in the rest of the world to have a competent person in that role, so I hope Zeollick gets the job.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.