Fiorina Among World Bank Candidates

Carly Fiorina, the recently ousted chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co., is in the running to be the next president of the World Bank, a Bush administration official said Tuesday.

Fiorina is the latest person to emerge as a candidate to replace World Bank President James Wolfensohn. He is stepping down as head of the development bank June 1 at the end of his second five-year term.

The Financial Times reported Tuesday that U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was a “leading candidate” to replace Wolfensohn. But the Pentagon said Wolfowitz would remain in his current post.

The Bush administration said it would talk to other countries that belong to the 184-nation World Bank.

A spokeswoman for Fiorina didn’t return a call seeking comment. Other names floated for the job include John Taylor, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for international affairs, and Peter McPherson, who served as President Bush’s point man on rebuilding Iraq’s financial system.