Tidjane Thiam is the scion of an influential family whose political connections and history spread across two West African countries: Ivory Coast and Senegal.
The 57-year-old came to prominence in the UK when he was named as the head of Prudential in 2009, making him the first black chief executive of a major British company.
In an almost six-year stint he more than doubled Prudential’s profits and tripled its share price, cementing his place as one of the top bosses in the FTSE 100. The success of the company allowed him to weather the fallout of an ambitious but botched attempt at a $36bn (£24bn) takeover of AIA, the Asian arm of the US insurer AIG, only a few months into his tenure.
But in 2013, Thiam became the first FTSE 100 chief executive to be personally censured by the City regulator for not being “open” about the planned takeover. Prudential was fined £30m.
Despite the sanction, his growing reputation as one of the finance world’s luminaries was underlined by stock market movements when his departure for Credit Suisse was announced two years later.
As the news emerged, the ailing Swiss bank’s share price rose almost 7%, while Prudential’s stock fell 3%.
Thiam was born into a middle-class family that allowed him to draw on a vast well of political experience and connections.
He was mostly educated in France, where he graduated top of the class from the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris and also attended Ecole Polytechnique, which produces many of the country’s political and business elite.
After a stint in his 20s at the management consultancy firm McKinsey, he joined the World Bank and then moved back to Ivory Coast, where he became a government minister in charge of privatisations.
After spending several weeks under house arrest during a military coup and turning down a job with the new regime, he left the country in early 2000.
“I had no job, no career, nothing at all … If you’ve been in a situation where you have nothing, there’s nothing much you’re afraid of,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in 2012.
After trading politics for financial services, he became one of the most successful executives of his generation and has also been called upon as an adviser to international organisations such as the G20, chairing a panel on infrastructure investment.
He remains a member of the prime minister’s business advisory group and a business ambassador for UK Trade & Investment. He is also a fervent Arsenal fan.
Despite the controversial nature of his departure from Credit Suisse, his tenure was mostly seen as a success. Indeed, business magazine Euromoney named him banker of the year 2018, citing his reinvention of the company.
Thiam is likely to attract interest from multiple financial services companies hunting for their next leader.
