From CS boss to state leader?: Tidjane Thiam wants to become president of Ivory Coast

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Tidjane Thiam’s (61) time as head of Credit Suisse ended without any problems. Perhaps the African was never right in the financial world.

He comes from a family of politicians and was Minister of Planning and Development in his home country in the 1990s. Statesmanship has apparently captivated the Ivorian again after his trip to Switzerland. Thiam not only wants to become head of the Democratic Party in Ivory Coast (PDCI), but ideally also president.

81-year-old rules Ivory Coast

On Saturday, about 6,000 PDCI delegates will vote on whether Thiam or one of his four competitors will get the top job. If the ex-CS boss has his way, there is little chance that he will run for the 2025 presidential elections.

Sebastian van Baalen, assistant professor at Sweden’s Uppsala University and political expert in Ivory Coast, says in the Financial Times what speaks for Thiam. The ex-manager is relatively young for the Ivorian presidential landscape, which is dominated by older politicians. Alassane Ouattara (81) currently holds the position of president. He is serving his third term, although the constitution only allows for two.

Thiam heralded the end of Credit Suisse

While Thiam is working on his political comeback, Switzerland is still trying to come to terms with the demise of Credit Suisse. In March, Thiam dismissed potential criticism in an op-ed in the Financial Times. At the time of his resignation, CS had “just achieved its highest profit in ten years following a deep restructuring”. In the years that followed, ‘a lot went wrong’.

It was the non-banker Thiam who significantly decentralized the bank at the top of CS and greatly weakened risk management. This resulted in expensive bad investments. The billion-dollar bankruptcies of Greensill and Archegos heralded the end of the bank. (no)

Source: Blick