ADVERTISEMENT

Credit Suisse’s Tidjane Thiam Loves Arsenal, Florida, Apple News

Credit Suisse’s Tidjane Thiam Loves Arsenal, Florida, Apple News

(Bloomberg Markets) -- The chief executive officer of Credit Suisse Group AG since 2015 was the subject of Bloomberg Market’s cover Q&A in the September / October 2016 issue. Here, he divulges some of his off‑duty habits and preferences to Bloomberg TV’s Francine Lacqua, co-anchor of Bloomberg Surveillance and host of Leaders With Lacqua.

Credit Suisse’s Tidjane Thiam Loves Arsenal, Florida, Apple News

How many hours of sleep do you get a night?
Between five and six.

Are you a morning or evening person?
Evening. But I have always had jobs where I have to start early.

What’s your typical workout?
Rowing every other day.

What’s your favorite sport or sports team?
Sadly, Arsenal Football Club.

Which app is in heavy rotation on your phone?
Apple News. It’s fantastic.

What’s your go-to lunch spot?
An Italian restaurant in Zurich.

What’s the best book you’ve read recently?
Grant by Ron Chernow.

Printed book, e-book, or audiobook?
E-book.

What’s your favorite place to go on vacation?
Florida, by the seaside. I love the sea and going out on it.

Do you have a strategy for fighting jet lag?
Drink a lot of water. Set your watch to your destination time zone on takeoff.

What living or historical person do you truly admire?
How about a few? Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Louis Pasteur.

What’s the last thing that made you laugh?
A GIF one of my sons sent me. He is brilliant at finding to-the-point hysterical ones.

What’s the best advice you’ve gotten?
A professor gave me this advice: “Work hard to always raise your minimum. Your long-term potential is more determined by how low you can go than by how high you can go.” In other words, what we do when everything is going against us matters very much.

If you were 20, what business would you get into?
Biotechnology, life sciences—they have the capacity to change our collective future.

Do you ever expect to retire?
I hope not to.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christine Harper at charper@bloomberg.net

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.