Robert Zoellick

Robert Bruce Zoellick (; German: [ˈtsœlɪk]; born July 25, 1953) is an American lawyer and government official who was the 11th president of the World Bank Group from 2007 to 2012. He was previously chairman of international advisors at Goldman Sachs from 2006 to 2007, United States Deputy Secretary of State from 2005 to 2006, and U.S. Trade Representative from 2001 to 2005. Prior to those posts, from 1985 to 2001, he served in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and the presidential campaign of George W. Bush, in addition to positions in various think tanks and academia.

Zoellick has been a senior fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs since ending his term with the World Bank in 2012. Since 2017, he has been a Senior Counselor at Brunswick Group.

Zoellick was born in Evergreen Park, Illinois, the son of Gladys (Lenz) and William T. Zoellick. His ancestors were German and he was raised Lutheran. He grew up in Naperville, Illinois, and attended Naperville Central High School, graduating in 1971.

After high school, Zoellick studied history as an undergraduate at Swarthmore College, where he graduated with his Bachelor of Arts in 1975 with membership in Phi Beta Kappa. He then dual enrolled at Harvard University, where he simultaneously studied public policy and law, earning his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Harvard Law School and his Master of Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School in 1981.

Upon graduation from Harvard Law School, Zoellick served as a law clerk for Judge Patricia Wald on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1982 to 1983.

Zoellick was special assistant to Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Richard Darman from July to December 1985, and was counselor and executive secretary to United States Secretary of the Treasury James Baker from January to July 1988.

He was issues director for the 1988 George H. W. Bush Presidential campaign from July to November 1988.

During Bush's presidency, Zoellick served with Baker, by then Secretary of State, as Counselor of the United States Department of State from March 1989 to August 1992, and as Under Secretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs from May 1991 to August 1992.

Zoellick served as Bush's personal representative or "sherpa" for the G7 Economic Summits in 1991 and 1992. He led the US Delegation to the Two Plus Four talks on German reunification; for his achievements in this role, the Federal Republic of Germany awarded him the Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit.

Zoellick is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and was on its board of directors from 1994 through 2001. He is a member of the Trilateral Commission. He was a participant in the Bilderberg Group from 2003 through at least 2017, and was a member of its steering committee.

He is also a member of Washington, D.C.–based think tank, The Inter-American Dialogue. He chairs the Global Tiger Initiative, and is a member of the Global Leadership Council of Mercy Corps, a global humanitarian agency.

Since 2013, he has been a member of the board of directors of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and since 2018 of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

In May 2017, Zoellick joined Brunswick Group, a global public affairs and communications firm, as a Senior Counselor, and in February 2018 he was made one of the four principals of Brunswick's newly launched Brunswick Geopolitical. Since November 2020 he has been chair of Standard Chartered's international advisory council. Since June 2021 he has been an independent director of Robinhood.

He is a trustee of the Wildlife Conservation Society, and has served on the advisory board of the World Wildlife Fund.

He is a recipient of the Distinguished Service Award, the Department of State's highest honor; the Alexander Hamilton Award of the Department of the Treasury; and the Medal for Distinguished Public Service of the Department of Defense.

In 1992, he received the Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his eminent achievements in the course of German reunification. In 2002, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Saint Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana. The Mexican and Chilean governments awarded him their highest honors for non-citizens, the Aztec Eagle and the Order of Merit, for recognition of his work on free trade, development, and the environment.

In 2016, he received the Annenberg Award for Excellence in Diplomacy.

In 2017, he was a recipient of the Economic Club of Minnesota's Bill Frenzel Champion of Free Trade Award.

In a January 2000 Foreign Affairs essay entitled "Campaign 2000: A Republican Foreign Policy," Zoellick noted five Republican principles (respect for power, building and sustaining coalitions and alliances, recognizing common interests with international agreements and institutions, embracing new technologies for global politics and security, and the continuing presence of bad actors. "[T]here is still evil in the world—people who hate America and the ideas for which it stands. Today, we face enemies who are hard at work to develop nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, along with the missiles to deliver them. The United States must remain vigilant and have the strength to defeat its enemies. People driven by enmity or by a need to dominate will not respond to reason or goodwill. They will manipulate civilized rules for uncivilized ends."

In Australia's New Left Review, Gavan McCormack wrote that as USTR Zoellick had intervened during a 2004 privatization issue in Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's re-election campaign: "The office of the U.S. Trade Representative has played an active part in drafting the Japan Post privatization law. An October 2004 letter from Robert Zoellick to Japan's Finance Minister Takenaka Heizo, tabled in the Diet on August 2, 2005, included a handwritten note from Zoellick commending Takenaka. Challenged to explain this apparent U.S. government intervention in a domestic matter, Koizumi merely expressed his satisfaction that Takenaka had been befriended by such an important figure… It is hard to overestimate the scale of the opportunity offered to U.S. and global finance capital by the privatization of the Postal Savings System."

In the lead-up to the 2010 G-20 Seoul summit and in the immediate wake of the U.S. elections and subsequent Fed QE2 monetary-policy move, Zoellick wrote in a Financial Times editorial that the Group of 20 leading economies should consider adopting a global reserve currency based on gold as part of structural reforms to the world's foreign-exchange regime.

In March 2016, Zoellick was one of three Cabinet-level Republican officials to oppose Trump's presidential candidacy, in an open letter signed by 122 members of the Republican national security community. In August 2016, Zoellick signed a letter from 50 of America's most senior Republican national security officials, which warned that a Donald Trump presidency would be a national security risk and would threaten the nation's well-being. In a November 1, 2016, interview with Deutsche Welle, Zoellick said "My belief differences with Trump were not only placed on policy – his protectionism, his infatuation with authoritarian leaders and Vladimir Putin. But also that I think he is a narcissistic, ego-driven person and that he would be dangerous. I have had the good fortune to serve a number of different presidents and I know the importance of that job and I don't want him in the Oval Office."

Zoellick is the author of the 2020 book, America in the World: A History of U.S. Diplomacy and Foreign Policy, which asserts that since the country's founding, U.S. foreign policy has been defined by five traditions: the continent of North America; trade, transnationalism and technology; alliances and order; public and congressional support; and America's purpose.

Zoellick married Sherry Lynn Ferguson in 1980. They live in McLean, Virginia.