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Benjamin Black, a son of the private equity mogul Leon Black and likely head of the International Development Finance Corporation, wants a piece of U.S.A.I.D.’s funding to invest in “pro-market” projects overseas.
Feb. 26, 2025Updated 9:11 a.m. ET
At the United States Agency for International Development, thousands of workers have been fired or put on administrative leave and many of its projects addressing global issues like health, hunger and education have been halted.
Now, a former Goldman Sachs analyst and son of a private equity billionaire has ambitions to control some of U.S.A.I.D.’s roughly $40 billion budget and apply more of a “pro-market” approach to supporting development in other countries.
Benjamin Black, 40, has been nominated by President Trump to run the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, a little-known agency that invests and lends billions each year to companies and projects overseas.
Mr. Black, whose father is Leon Black, a co-founder of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management, has said he wants the development finance agency to be able to use money that previously went to U.S.A.I.D. for international projects that explicitly benefit American interests.
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“If we are going to spend money abroad, let’s do so with an investment-driven model,” Benjamin Black and the tech entrepreneur Joe Lonsdale wrote in an essay last month, about two weeks before Mr. Trump’s inauguration.
