World Bank President Jim Kim has been building support to achieve universal health care by 2030, and wants the bank to play a major role in helping low-income countries achieve that goal. His right hand man in that effort is Tim Evans, who Kim brought on board last June as director of health, nutrition and population.
In April, after an exhaustive recruitment and selection process, Evans was chosen to be the new senior director of the health global practice starting July 1.
Evans’ appointment was welcomed by staff and observers in global health circles. A former colleague of Kim’s at the World Health Organization, Evans has more than 20 years of experience in international health at institutions like the Rockefeller Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. In fact, Evans’ father, John Evans, was the first director of health programs at the World Bank. He was appointed in 1979 by Robert McNamara, the former U.S. Defense Secretary who later became World Bank President, to run the bank’s newly formed health office, a division then known as Population Health and Nutrition.