Tidjane Thiam

Tidjane Thiam (born 29 July 1962) is a French-Ivorian banker and philanthropist who has served as the chief executive officer of Swiss bank Credit Suisse since March 2015. Previous to assuming the post, Thiam was the chief financial officer of British banking group Prudential from 2007 to 2009 before serving as its chief executive until 2013.

Born into a prominent political family in the Ivory Coast, he holds dual Ivorian and French citizenship. 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 chief executive 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.