Tidjane Thiam an executive director, sitting on the plc board. In January 2007, after Richard Harvey announced he would step down as chief executive of Aviva, Thiam was tipped as a possible future head of the group. Thiam left Aviva in September 2007 to become chief financial officer of Prudential plc. In March 2009, Thiam was named chief executive, effective from October, after Mark Tucker chose to step down. The appointment made him the first African to lead a FTSE 100 listed company. His departure from the role was announced on 10 March 2015. After he became chief executive, Prudential launched a
First National Financial Corporation administration. By the end of that year, First National had a total of $99.4 billion in mortgages under administration. In October 2017, First National Financial Corporation announced it had reached $100 billion in mortgages under administration. On October 1, 2015, Queen’s University’s School of Business changed its name to The Stephen J.R. Smith School of Business in honour of the $50 million donation made by Stephen Smith, Chairman, CEO and Co-founder of First National Financial Corporation. On November 16, 2018 The Canadian Business Hall of Fame announced the chairman and CEO of First National Financial LP, Stephen Smith, as its