Tidjane Thiam, the head of the CS, felt unjustly treated in Switzerland. And he has been subjected to several racist attacks. For this reason too, the Board of Directors hesitated for a long time to dismiss the CEO.
—
Tidjane Thiam feels comfortable in an international environment. Here with Ivanka Trump, the daughter of the US President, at the WEF in Davos.
—
Tidjane Thiam entered the bank building on Zurich’s Paradeplatz on Friday morning through the main entrance and not via the underground car park as usual. Shortly before that, at 7 a.m., Credit Suisse (CS) announced the dismissal of the CEO. A Financial Times reporter watched the scene and wrote that Thiam greeted the front desk staff and then went to his office on the second floor. He had left the door open. The message: “I have nothing to hide.”
Thiam showed strength in one of his hardest moments. He is at peace with himself. And he has experience with exceptional departures: the 57-year-old lost his job in 1999 under even more spectacular circumstances. Thiam was Development Minister in the Ivory Coast government. Until there was a coup d’état. The President of the Côte d’Ivoire was pushed away – and with him Minister Thiam.
The Ivorian then moved to France, of which he also has citizenship. It was there that his breathtaking career in the private sector began, which led him to Credit Suisse through the British insurer Prudential 2015.
Top degree in Paris – but no position with the state
From an early age, Thiam had an experience in France that was to shape him as a member of a black minority. The son of a Senegalese journalist and politician studied in Paris. There he graduated from the elite schools Ecole Polytechnique, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines and Insead in the 1980s. With pure white fellow students. Usually the best of the year are offered a job at the French state. But not Thiam, despite the top degree. So he accepted an internship offer at McKinsey.
From Thiam’s environment it is said that even during his time in Switzerland he felt that the media and society did not treat him as an African. Especially after the shadowing affair of renegade star banker Iqbal Khan was exposed.
“Common Business Practices in Black Africa”
In the comment columns of the financial blog “Insideparadeplatz” were things that Thiam took note of. About his homeland, the Ivory Coast, one could read there that “deals and agreements are generally made with a money case and / or the Kalashnikov”. Or that it was “high time to clean up” at CS because “the business practices permitted in sub-Saharan Africa have no place here”.
The bank and Thiam received e-mails and letters with bad content. This led to solidarity in the CS Board of Directors. This gave Thiam additional protection. There is even the thesis that Chairman of the Board of Directors Urs Rohner wanted to fire his CEO earlier. Because when it became known in December that a second member of the executive board had been spied on, the supervisory body became aware that the top operational manager – even if he was not directly involved – would no longer be manageable. But Rohner hesitated, not least because of the personal attacks on Thiam.
Have Swiss media been fed specifically?
Rohner rejects this thesis. The racist attacks were unacceptable and strongly condemned, he said in “Switzerland at the weekend”: “However, this should not have any influence on decisions of the board of directors.”
This is the official language regulation, but well-informed sources say that the question of racism played a role. Because Thiam complained internally to the bank that the criticism of him for the shadowing affair was exaggerated. He suspected that Swiss media would be “fed” with information that would put him in a bad light and thus destabilize him.
Intervention at “Blick” publisher Michael Ringier
A neighborhood dispute that Thiam had in Herrliberg with Iqbal Khan came to the press. Behind these indiscretions there are circles that want to bully him, Thiam – because he doesn’t fit the CS.
Thiam found it outrageous that several newspapers published an aerial view of his villa in Herrliberg. The “Blick” next to it showed a photo of Thiam. For him, this came across according to his environment: «Scandal! A black man can afford a villa on Lake Zurich. ”The report led to an intervention by“ Blick ”publisher Michael Ringier.
It was difficult for the Board of Directors to speak openly with Thiam about how much the shadowing affair gnaws at CS’s reputation. For Thiam, it was above all an exaggerated Swiss media scandal with no major international significance. This view was also shared by three important shareholders from the USA and Great Britain, who supported Thiam until the very end. But not the Board of Directors, which is mostly foreign. In the end, it was that loss of reputation that cost Thiam the job.
CS: No severance pay, but many millions for Thiam
In an interview with “Switzerland at the weekend”, CS President Urs Rohner stated that CEO Tidjane Thiam did not receive any severance payment, but only six monthly wages. This is how long his contract continues. Formally Thiam leaves on February 14th.
In view of Rohner’s announcement, the headline of the Tamedia newspapers was irritating: “Thiam receives around CHF 30 million from Credit Suisse.” That would be more than six monthly wages even for a bank boss. In 2018, Thiam earned a total of CHF 12.7 million. Where does this contradiction come from?
The 30 million mentioned in the newspaper report are not to be understood as severance payments. The sum is made up of two components:
1. Estimated compensation for last year and this year (until Thiam’s contract ends in August). The annual report will only show how much Thiam has earned in 2019.
2. Deferred bonus shares from previous years. Nowadays, the entire bonus is no longer paid out immediately. The companies want to give their bosses an incentive to strive for long-term rather than short-term success: the bonus paid out later is smaller if the share has fallen.
Tamedia puts the value of the deferred bonus at CHF 16 million. According to the annual report, there are even 16.4 million. However, only in the best possible case (“maximum opportunity”). Because the CS share declined, the value of the postponed package was effectively “only” 6.9 million at the end of 2018. Since then the course has continued to fall.
It is therefore quite possible that Thiam will receive 20 instead of 30 million for 2019, 2020 and deferred compensation. It’s a lot of money anyway. (PMÜ)
—
–
