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Credit Suisse’s Top Investor Wants Chairman to Follow CEO Out

Credit Suisse’s Top Investor Wants Chairman to Follow CEO Out

(Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse’s biggest investor called for chairman Urs Rohner to step down after a boardroom battle led to the ousting of Tidjane Thiam as chief executive.

David Herro, chief investment officer at Harris Associates, said his firm would “examine all options” to protect the value of its investment, adding that he had spoken to other shareholders who also opposed Rohner.

“We think there is great potential in Credit Suisse and we would hate to see it ruined by a chairman who is not on the same page of shareholder value creation as we are,” he said in a Bloomberg TV interview. “If he really loved the company, he should step down and resign.”

Credit Suisse’s Top Investor Wants Chairman to Follow CEO Out

Herro’s comments suggest the brawl over Credit Suisse’s leadership is far from settled after a new CEO was installed earlier Friday. The bank named Thomas Gottstein as its first Swiss-born chief executive in almost two decades to replace Thiam, who is leaving after feud between him and former executive Iqbal Khan blew up into a tabloid scandal.

Directors rebuffed calls from major shareholders to keep Thiam, instead supporting Rohner’s decision to change leadership at a board meeting on Thursday. Silchester International Investors, and U.S. fund Eminence Capital also had stepped up to defend the CEO.

“Our worry is that you have this new CEO who is capable and talented but above him, a chairman who is less than capable and talented and a board who seems to just mimic, just follows blindly whatever he says,” said Herro.

--With assistance from Nishant Kumar and Nicholas Comfort.

To contact the reporters on this story: Marion Dakers in London at mdakers@bloomberg.net;Francine Lacqua in London at flacqua@bloomberg.net;Tom Keene in New York at tkeene@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ambereen Choudhury at achoudhury@bloomberg.net, Ross Larsen, Dale Crofts

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