Tidjane Thiam is a man who defied the odds to become a celebrated chief executive at the helm of a raft of corporate giants - but who this year was barred from running for president in his home country of Cte d'Ivoire. The son of parents Amadou and Maritou, Thiam had an upbringing featuring both privilege and deprivation.
He experienced privilege as his mother was born into an aristocratic Akou family whose chief, her uncle, was President Flix Houphout-Boigny - who led Cte d'Ivoire from independence in October 1960 until his death in December 1993.
But Thiam's childhood was also marked by emotional deprivation at a young age, when his father was imprisoned on politically motivated charges - denying infant Tidjane a crucial anchor in his life and leading him, he says, to become uncommonly close to his mother.
