Tidjane Thiam, a French national who was forced to flee a coup in the Ivory Coast less than 10 years ago, was on Thursday named chief executive of UK life assurer Prudential in a move heralded as the first appointment of a black CEO by a FTSE 100 company. Thiam, currently the Pru’s finance director, succeeds Mark Tucker, who is stepping down after four years as CEO for “entirely personal” reasons. The appointment came as Prudential reported forecast-beating 2008 results with a 17% increase in operating profit.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Friday, March 20th, 2009 at 4:45 and is filed under Capital markets, People. Tagged with prudential. Edit this entry.