17/09/2025
PERSONALITY OF THE WEEK
Get ready for inspiration! 🤗
Our Personality of the Week feature highlights incredible individuals who motivate and empower us. This week, we're shining the spotlight on...
Tidjane Thiam, (Côte d'Ivoire, France)
🇨🇮🇫🇷
Seasoned Financier and Administrator
CEO of Swiss bank, Credit Suisse from March 2015 to February 2020. Chief Finnancial Officer of British banking group, Prudential from 2007 to 2009, and then its CEO until 2015. Former Chairman of Freedom Acquisition Corp, a special-purpose acquisition company that merged with American solar company, Complete Solaria in 2023, taking the latter public.
Born into a prominent political family in the Ivory Coast, he had dual Ivorian and French nationality between 1987 and 2025. He studied advanced mathematics and physics in France before joining the management consultants McKinsey & Company in 1986, where he worked until 1994. From 1994 to 1999 he worked in the Ivory Coast first as CEO of the National Bureau for Technical Studies (BNETD). Following the 1999 Ivorian coup d'état, he resumed a private sector career and rejoined McKinsey in Paris from 2000 to 2002, then worked as a senior executive for Aviva before being recruited by Prudential.
In 2020, Thiam was appointed by the shareholders of the Kering Foundation to become part of the board of directors, as well as to take the position as Chair of the Audit Committee.
In 1982 Thiam was the first Ivorian to pass the entrance examination to the École Polytechnique in Paris. In 1984, he graduated from the École Polytechnique and in 1986 from the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris where he was top of his class. In 1986 he was offered a scholarship to study for an MBA at INSEAD and join the McKinsey Fellows Programme' in Paris. He received an MBA from INSEAD in 1988 (Dean's list). In 1989 he took a one-year sabbatical from McKinsey to participate in the World Bank's Young Professionals Program in Washington, D.C. He returned to McKinsey in 1990, working first in New York City and then in Paris.
In August 1998, in addition to his role at the BNETD, where he became chairman, Thiam formally joined the cabinet and was appointed Minister of Planning and Development. In his years in Côte d'Ivoire, Thiam promoted private sector involvement in infrastructure development. He implemented flagship projects including the Azito power plant (nominated by the Financial Times as one of the boldest successful investment decisions in the world, the renovation of Abidjan airport and the construction of the Riviera Marcory toll bridge, whose financing was closed a few days before the 1999 coup. One of the first actions of the new president, Alassane Ouattara, in 2011 was to start the construction of that bridge as originally overseen by Thiam, with the same promoters.
In 1998, the World Economic Forum in Davos named him as one of the annual 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow, and in 1999 the Forum named him a member of the Dream Cabinet. In December 1999, whilst Thiam was abroad, the Ivorian military seized control of the government. Thiam returned to the country, where he was arrested and held for several weeks. Robert Guéï, the new head of state, offered him the position of chief of staff, but he declined and left the country in early 2000.
On returning to Europe, Thiam was offered a partnership by McKinsey in Paris, becoming one of the leaders of the company's financial institutions practice. In 2002 he joined Aviva, initially as Group Strategy and Development Director, then as MD of Aviva International, CEO of Aviva Europe and an Executive Director, sitting on the PLC Board. In January 2007, after Richard Harvey announced he would step down as CEO of Aviva, Thiam was tipped as a possible future head of the group. Thiam left Aviva in September 2007 to become chief financial officer of Prudential plc. In March 2009, Thiam was named chief executive, effective from October, after Mark Tucker chose to step down. The appointment made him the first African to lead a FTSE 100 listed company. His departure from the role was announced on 10 March 2015.
Thiam has since returned home to contest the presidency under PDCI, an opposition party in Côte d'Ivoire in the upcoming October 25th 2025 presidential elections.
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