Tidjane Thiam is the Executive Chairman of Freedom Acquisition Corporation I, a company he founded in 2021. He served as Chief Executive Officer of Credit Suisse Group AG from July 2015 to February 2020.

Throughout his career, Tidjane has led organizations in both the private and public sectors and developed projects and programs that stimulate businesses and economies. At Credit Suisse, he set up a three-year restructuring program recognized by Euromoney with the “Banker of the Year” Award for Excellence in 2018 and in 2019. Under his leadership, Credit Suisse delivered in 2019 its highest profits since 2010.

His tenure as Group Chief Executive of Prudential plc from 2009 to 2015 saw the firm’s market capitalization treble to more than USD 60 billion. He was elected Chairman of the Board of the Association of British Insurers, a role he held from 2012 to 2014. Prior to that, he held a variety of leadership roles at Aviva from 2002 to 2007 including CEO of Aviva Europe and Executive Director.

From 1994 to 1999, Tidjane returned to Cote d’Ivoire to serve as a Cabinet Secretary, CEO of the National Bureau for Technical Studies and Development, and represented Côte d’Ivoire vis-à-vis the World Bank/IMF. He led one of the largest and most successful emerging market privatizations and infrastructure development programs. He featured among the “Young Global leaders of Tomorrow“ by the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1997 and included in the WEF’s Dream Cabinet in 1999.

Earlier in his career, Tidjane spent a decade with McKinsey and Company where he was a partner. Tidjane Thiam has been a member of the Group of Thirty (G30) since 2014. He was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rwanda Finance in November 2020, in charge of promoting Rwanda as an international financial center. In 2019, he became a member of the Global Board of Advisors of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and then in 2020 a member of the IOC Finance Commission. In 2019, he became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and joined the IOC Finance Commission in 2020.

Tidjane is a member of the Council on State Fragility chaired by former British Prime Minister David Cameron. From 2014 to 2019 he served on the Board of Directors of 21st Century Fox.

Tidjane was awarded the title of Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor in 2011. He was recognized on the TIME 100 list in 2010. He is a graduate of the École Polytechnique and the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris, and holds an MBA with distinction from INSEAD.