Who is Ajay Banga, the next president of the World Bank?

Ajay Banga, confirmed on Wednesday as the World Bank's next president, is an Indian-born American executive who has been hailed by media in his birth country as the global development lender's "face of change."

His leadership for a five-year term comes as the bank pivots to face climate change, a crucial transition that the former Mastercard chief sees as closely tied to vanquishing inequality -- and he has big plans for the private sector's role in that task.

Banga, the first World Bank president from South Asia, takes over on June 2 from outgoing president David Malpass, who is stepping down early from a presidency clouded by questions over his climate stance.

Born into a Sikh family in the Indian city of Pune, in the state of Maharashtra, Banga is a naturalized US citizen.

The 63-year-old grew up in different parts of the country due to his father's job as an army officer, before starting out at the Indian subsidiary of Nestle in the early 1980s.

He went on to have a successful business career in India, and later relocated to the United States.

Banga ran the payments company Mastercard for more than a decade between 2010 and 2021, and has also served on the boards of the American Red Cross, Kraft Foods and Dow Inc.

More recently, he was vice chairman at private equity firm General Atlantic.

Banga's expertise in finance and development will play a key role for the bank as it realigns to face the challenge of a warming planet.

He has said he wants to see greater private sector funding to help tackle financing for global problems.