Tidjane Thiam vs Swiss Establishment

The Credit Suisse CEO is fighting for his future. His major sin? Refusing to pander to an influential Zurich establishment which still holds sway over the Swiss bank at home.

Tidjane Thiam has gone rogue: the Credit Suisse CEO is hitting back at what he views as personal attacks in a lurid spying scandal. The Swiss bank has admitted and apologized for spying on at least two of its former top executives.

Resorting to social media to correct perceived wrongs has more than whiff of desperation. The «rogue» move illustrates beautifully that an army of highly-paid spin doctors has lost control of the narrative.

It’s no coincidence that the 57-year-old embattled CEO chose Davos to launch his own social media push, where he was pictured with Kristalina Georgieva, the new International Monetary Fund head, and U.S. presidential adviser-daughter Ivanka Trump. A big thinker, Thiam is very comfortable rubbing shoulders with the intelligentsia as well as business and political elite.

 

 

 

 

 

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As ever our Women of Impact dinner last night at the @worldeconomicforum was challenging and thought provoking - great to have @kristalina.georgieva and @ivankatrump join Tina Brown and I for it. #wef2020

A post shared by Tidjane Thiam (@tidjane.thiam) on Jan 21, 2020 at 10:48pm PST

Courting Movers and Shakers

Where he’s not so comfortable is at home: specifically, Thiam has run afoul of the powerful establishment around Swiss banks at home. Local movers-and-shakers like those in business-friendly FDP political circles and an elaborate network of businesspeople, economists, and professors with ties to the University of Zurich have turned against him, according to several people familiar with the matter.

It is the same cozy network which meets at Uni-hosted lectures and schmoozes at fundraisers for the Zurich Opera, the Kunsthaus, theater, or zoo – and Swiss daily «Neue Zuercher Zeitung» is their collective voice. A $3 million grant to the University of Zurich by Credit Suisse last year did little to curry favor in these circles.

If roughly two-thirds of Credit Suisse’s shares are controlled by foreign shareholders, why does it matter if the Zurichoise are huffy? Because it is the same faction which is fanning the flames. Thiam has alluded to forces (in French) working against him – and in that he isn’t wrong.

No Counter-Concept

It is telling that the business establishment-friendly NZZ broke a second spy case. Credit Suisse losing the NZZ, which called for Thiam to leave and compared him to ex-Raiffeisen CEO Pierin Vincenz, who is currently under criminal investigation, means he has «lost the room».