Between the lines

IF YOU were an employer seeking to fill a job vacancy and you happened on James D Wolfensohn’s curriculum vitae, chances are you’d offer him the post on the spot.

And, then you’d probably offer him your own job, into the bargain.

For the Wolfensohn resumé is a most remarkable thing: prodigy attends university two years before his peer group; invited to join elite young Australian tennis squad with Ken Rosewall and Lew Hoad, Federers and Nadals of their day; Australian Olympic fencer; officer in the Royal Australian Air Force; Harvard MBA; amateur cellist, tutored by Jacqueline Du Pre, plays private concerts with Yo-Yo Ma; chairman emeritus of Carnegie Hall and the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, and so on.