Tidjane Thiam 1994 to 1999 he worked in the Ivory Coast first as chief executive of the National Bureau for Technical Studies (BNETD). Following the 1999 Ivorian coup d'état, he resumed a private sector career and rejoined McKinsey in Paris from 2000 to 2002, then worked as a senior executive for Aviva before being recruited by Prudential. Thiam was born in the Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire) on 29 July 1962. He is a descendant of two prominent families from Senegal and Ivory Coast. On his mother’s side, he is a descendant of Yamousso, after whom the capital of Côte d'Ivoire, Yamoussoukro, is
Octagonal (company) Octagonal (company) Octagonal is a holding company headquartered in London. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE AIM All-Share Index. Octagonal currently has a 100% stake in Global Investment Strategy UK Ltd or 'GIS', a financial services company and member of the London Stock Exchange. Octagonal was founded in 2007 as an investment company, and acquired a 9.97% stake in Global Investment Strategy in April 2014. In 2015, Octagonal announced it had entered into a conditional agreement to acquire the remaining issued share capital of GIS. Octagonal raised £1.7 million through