Now, (and this is a dangerous thing for a business journalist to do, so please don’t crucify me) I have to confess at not knowing too much about Thiam so I looked him up.
So at the risk of repeating a column in next week's Accountancy Age, here’s a flavour of that remarkable CV. He was born in the Ivory Coast and is currently chief executive of Aviva Europe. Highly respected he has been on speaking platforms with luminaries such as chancellor Alistair Darling, George Osborne and FSA chief regulator John Tiner. He studied engineering at top schools in Paris and got his MB from INSEAD.

He joined McKinsey in the early 80s, later became a partner and in 1998 was named one of the 100 Global Leaders of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum. The WEF also cited him as being a candidate for a dream board. He returned to the Ivory Coast and became minister for planning and development after first being CEO of the country’s National Bureau for Technical Studies. Following a coup in 1999 he left to rejoin McKinsey in  Paris and then joined Aviva working his way up to CEO.Out of breath. I am. That’s an astonishing CV. There can’t be an FD in the country, or anywhere for that matter, with a history like that. But here’s the odd thing. He’s a CEO becoming a group FD. Not a common event. That almost never happens, except where CEOs are running much smaller divisions. The record shows Thiam is obviously a very talented and ambitious individual. Who would dare say that he will stop at being FD? In fact you wouldn’t. Clearly this is a man who must be tipped for the top and won't remain a Group FD for too long.