THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary
                  (Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                    August 24, 1999

                 PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES WILLENE A. JOHNSON 
                      AS U.S. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF
                       THE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

The President today announced his intent to nominate Willene A. Johnson as U.S. Executive Director of the African Development Bank.

Ms. Willene A. Johnson, of New York, New York, has served on the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) since 1982. Ms. Johnson has held numerous posts at the FRBNY, including Vice President for International Affairs (1994-1995) and Vice President and Senior Officer for Equal Employment Opportunity (1994-present). Ms. Johnson has managed staffs in the Economic Research, Foreign Exchange, and Financial Market Analysis Departments and has conducted research on a wide range of topics, including country risk, economic and financial reforms, and leadership development during her service at the Federal Reserve Bank.

Ms. Johnson received a BA in Social Studies with honors from Radcliffe College, an MA in African History from St. John's University, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group is a multilateral lending institution which provides funds to national governments and the private sector to support economic development in Africa. Loans are made through two windows: the African Development Bank hard loan window, which lends at market rates to lower and middle income developing countries in Africa, and the African Development Fund (AfDF), which makes concessional loans at below market rates to Africa's poorest countries. The United States has been a member of the AfDB since 1983. In FY 2000, the President requested $5.1 million for the AfDB, and $127 million for the AfDF.

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