Can you tell us the first moment that you knew you were under consideration for the World Bank nomination?
It was not long before the announcement of my nomination on Friday, March 23. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner [class of 1983] called me and asked, “Would you ever consider being president of the World Bank?” I was shocked. People like me don’t get that kind of job. I wasn’t even paying attention to the nomination process.

What happened next?
I went to see President Obama the following day. Then they began vetting me, and then they told me on the day before the announcement that I would be the nominee.

This happened so quickly. Who did you consult for advice about the job?
My wife, my brother and sister, and my mother. My closest confidants and mentors, most of them from Harvard, and Paul Farmer, my longtime colleague and friend. But you know, it wasn’t a hard decision. I’ve spent my entire adult life trying to provide services and improve the prospects of people in the poorest countries. To have the opportunity to lead an institution that makes $50 billion-plus in loans every year with some $38 billion invested in the private sector, and a staff that knows more about development than arguably all other organizations working in development in the world—it was for me an unimaginable opportunity. While I was stunned, I really felt I had no choice but to say, “Yes, of course.”

Following the nomination, you embarked on an international listening tour. What did you learn on that trip?
One thing that struck me, in country after country, was that the fundamental problems were very similar: We need to spur economic growth, especially in the private sector. We need to create jobs, especially for young people. And we need to spur the kind of economic growth that will be inclusive and truly lift all boats. Everyone said, “We don’t want what happened in the Arab Spring to happen to us.”

What’s your reaction to the scuttlebutt about Geithner wanting the Dartmouth presidency?
Tim and I have never had that conversation. I do think he would be good at just about anything he takes on. He’s an incredible human being who has been in the middle of the most difficult situations and performed brilliantly.

Are there any really cool perks that come with your new job?
Well, one is that I understand I will participate in the G-8 meetings, along with the secretary general of the United Nations, the head of the World Trade Organization and the managing director of the IMF, Christine Lagarde. We’ll get the chance to know the leaders of eight of the most powerful countries in the world.

Is your executive vice president and CFO, Steve Kadish, who also worked with you at Harvard, going to leave Dartmouth with you for the World Bank?
I think Steve’s going to stay here for a while. I’ve been told we have a fantastic staff at the World Bank. Steve and I have a great chemistry, but I think he still has a lot to contribute here at Dartmouth, and he and Carol Folt work brilliantly together. I think they will maintain the momentum that we’ve built through the strategic planning process and help take Dartmouth to the next level. [Editor's note: On July 9 it was announced that Kadish will become senior VP and COO at Northeastern University this fall.]

Do you have adequate pull yet to convince Obama to be a future Commencement speaker at Dartmouth?
I don’t think so. Not yet. [Smiles.] I’ll certainly ask him the next time I see him.

What are you going to miss the most about Dartmouth alumni?
Of course, I’ll miss the people most. The students, faculty and staff have all been so good to me and my family. But I also really get along with alums across the full spectrum of the community. I feel like they’re my kind of people, and I’ve developed a deep affection for them. They’re passionate about this place, and I’m a passionate person—there are a lot of people who aren’t passionate about anything in the world—so I will miss that.

How do you characterize the student body as a whole?
They become passionate at an early age, bring their passion to Dartmouth and, because of their passion, they all over commit. The number of activities that some of these students are involved in is just unbelievable. They want to get everything out of their experience here. There was one student whose parents don’t live far away, and I asked him, “Are you going to go home for the weekend?” He said, “I never go home for the weekend. I might miss something.” There is a cohesion to the social life on this campus, and students don’t want to miss it.

What’s your response to those in the Dartmouth community who feel betrayed by your departure?
I hope people understand that for me this is not an act of betrayal. I was hired for this job because of what I had spent my life doing and for my values. The trustees wanted me to come here to inspire the students and to get them looking outward, get Dartmouth to look outward, and the fact that I had devoted my life to the alleviation of poverty was one of the most important reasons I was asked to take this job. I had intentions of staying here for a long time, and I thought that there was no other way for me to have as big an impact. But there’s not a single job in the world that allows you to have a bigger impact on alleviating poverty than the presidency of the World Bank.

In becoming Dartmouth’s president I made clear that I couldn’t turn my back on the poor. The trustees explicitly said that was the last thing they wanted me to do, that I should turn the face of the Dartmouth community to the poor. That was very inspiring for me. When this new opportunity came along I felt that if I turned it down, it would be effectively turning my back on the poor. Three years is a short period of time for a president of Dartmouth, but I think the institution is in a great place now. This is a completely improbable opportunity that surfaced unexpectedly, but my response to it should have been predictable, based on the last 30 years of my life. I can be very helpful, I hope, to Dartmouth in my new position as president of the World Bank just by being a representative and telling the world about what a great institution this is.

So you’re not tossing out your Dartmouth sweatshirts and green ties?
I’ll root for Dartmouth until the day I die!

Can the foundations you’ve laid here for healthcare delivery continue in your absence?
They have to because I didn’t really start anything new. What I did was bring already existing elements together. A great business school, an engineering school that focuses on systems and biomedicine, the fourth-oldest medical school in the country—they were all here long before I arrived. All I did was help bring them together with a grant, and it’s not going to go backward now. The master’s in healthcare delivery science is not going to go away. It would have been impossible for me to create something like that if the great strengths weren’t already here.

What are your thoughts about all the hazing hoopla and the new task force?
I think all this talk on hazing has opened up some important possibilities. We had already been implementing new programs to combat hazing. Now that the conversation has exploded, we’re going to go forward. I think [Dean of the College] Charlotte [Johnson] has many very good ideas about how we can combat hazing even more effectively, and we will.

Looking back on your three years as Dartmouth president, do you wish you had any mulligans?
One thing I would definitely do more of is just walk around campus, drop in on classes, talk to students and faculty and spend more “down time” with the community. Unfortunately, with the budget situation, fundraising work, the strategic planning process and many small crises, I didn’t have time to just hang out. Maybe tackling the most difficult problems first is just in my bones, but I wish I’d had more down time with the community.

You’ve got to be happy with what you’ve done with athletics here.
Harry Sheehy is arguably the best athletic director in the country. I think we have to do our best to make sure he’s happy and stays here for a very long time. He’s got a great team, and I think we as a community understand the importance of athletics as part of the training, maturation and education of young people. Harry understands that better than anybody I’ve ever met.

In DAM’s interview with you last fall you mentioned your surprise at the attention paid to your family and personal life here at Dartmouth. Do you expect more or the same as a public figure in Washington, D.C.?
I think there will be far less attention to my family. There will be lots of attention to me in terms of what I say and what I do, because the World Bank is such a big player in global development. But it’s different. You know, Hanover is a fishbowl. A warm, embracing and loving fishbowl, but it is a fishbowl. In Washington there are so many bigger fish than me that I’ll be very happy to be a little guppy, especially when it comes to my family.

Are they excited?
My son Thomas, who is 11, really loves Hanover. He’s going to be very sad to leave. He’s made me promise that we’ll come back for football weekends. But Washington is an exciting place to be, and we look forward to exploring that city. It’s a great place for kids. My wife is looking forward to the opportunities in Washington. In addition to her work in health- care delivery, she spent a lot of time here entertaining trustees, faculty and others, and she turned the house into a beautiful testament to the spirit of Dartmouth. We understand we’ll be doing a bit of entertaining in Washington as well, but not as much as here in Hanover.

You also mentioned in that last interview your role as a convener and an enabler, rather than a decider. Will that remain a guiding principle for you as you move on to the World Bank?
You know, the best advice I ever got about leadership was that the most important thing you can do as a leader is pick great people, decide on your shared goals and values, give them your full confidence, and then every time you meet with them you should ask them, “What obstacles can I remove in your quest to achieve your goals?” At the World Bank we will have the capacity to set and achieve extraordinary goals—to eradicate poverty from the face of the earth. So, my focus is going to be on assembling a team of the very best people, and then one by one removing the obstacles that they face in achieving their loftiest goals and aspirations. I’ll have to find out how effective I can be in removing those obstacles, but I feel that’s my job.