- In 1980, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
- Served as President of the World Bank from 1 June 1995 to 1 June 2005.
- He was named after James Armand de Rothschild, his father's former employer, whose birthday he shared.
- Former Chairman of the Board of the Institute for Advanced Study.
- Was a member of the Australian fencing team at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, participating in the Men's Team Épée.
- In 2006 he founded the Wolfensohn Center for Development at the Brookings Institution.
- In 1959 he earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School.,.
- Served as Chairman of the Kennedy Center in the 1990s.
- Served as Chairman of Carnegie Hall in the 1980s.
- Starting in the early 1960s he worked for various Australian banking institutions, including Darling & Co. In the late 1960s, he became a director of Darling's major shareholder J. Henry Schroder & Co, a London-based investment bank. He was a senior executive in the London office before becoming managing director of the bank's New York City office from 1970 to 1976.
- He entered the University of Sydney at the age of 16, graduating Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Bachelor of Laws (LLB).
- In the late 1970s he became a senior executive at Salomon Brothers.
- Was an officer in the Royal Australian Air Force.
- Father worked for the Rothschild banking family.
- Attended Woollahra Public School and then Sydney Boys High School.
- Before attending Harvard, Wolfensohn was a lawyer in the Australian law firm of Allen, Allen & Hemsley in Sydney (now Allens Arthur Robinson).
- In 1979, together with Chrysler Corporation's then chief executive officer Lee Iacocca and then President of the New York Fed Paul A. Volcker, he helped orchestrate the rescue of Chrysler from the verge of bankruptcy described as the largest corporate bailout at that time.
- Upon graduating from Harvard Business School, Wolfensohn worked briefly for Swiss cement giant Holderbank (now Holcim).
- Mother was on Belgian & Polish ancestry.
- Received an honorary knighthood of the Order of the British Empire in 1995 for his service to the arts.
- Became an honorary officer of the Order of Australia in 1987.
- Received the Award of Excellence from The International Center in New York.
- He was a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
- Received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1993.
- In July 2008 he was selected as one of the inaugural fellows of the Australian Institute of International Affairs.
- In 2006 he received the Leo Baeck Medal for his humanitarian work promoting tolerance and social justice.
- At the 2016 Summer Olympics Wolfensohn was inducted into the Olympians for Life project.
- Served as an honorary trustee of the Brookings Institution.
- Was a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation.
- The University of New South Wales conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Science in 2006.
- He was a member of the non-profit think tank the Council on Foreign Relations.
- Served on the board of the Wolfensohn Family Foundation.
- He was a member of the American Philosophical Society.
- Was a trustee and past chairman of the board of trustees of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
- Regularly attended meetings of the Aspen Institute and the World Economic Forum.
- Between 1985 and 2015 Wolfensohn attended 27 conferences of the Bilderberg Group. He was a one time a member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group.
- Sat on the board of Endeavor (non-profit).
- In 2004 he was the commencement speaker at Brandeis University.
- Was a member of the Honorary Board of the International Paralympic Committee.
- In 2011 he was awarded the Golden Biatec Award, the highest award bestowed by Slovakia's Informal Economic Forum - Economic Club, for his contribution to addressing global priorities.
- Hist father was British of Austrian-Jewish ancestry.
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