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Marking Territory

The legacy-minded chairman is keenly aware that «how he handles the coming weeks and months are enormously important in how his tenure will be judged,» a person familiar with Rohner's thinking told finews.com last week.

In other words, Rohner will have to step up his visibility within Credit Suisse as well as outside. It will fall to the chairman to demonstrate and embody the corporate and cultural values he feels have been trampled. He will also have to take in hand the «what next» strategy question after Thiam's successful turnaround of Credit Suisse – as well as accelerate CEO succession planning.

Conflicts Inevitable

The succession question will be peppered with conflict: 57-year-old Thiam is basking in the fruits of a crushing three-year revamp of Credit Suisse. He isn't known for being an executive who takes on strategic advice easily (click here and also here to read more about Thiam as CEO).

The CEO's vulnerability is that the strategy he has pursued relentlessly – focus on wealth management, pare back investment banking and make it work for the private bank – hasn't paid off yet. Stockholders haven't honored it, and apparently neither have clients – their reluctance is witnessed by Credit Suisse's dwindling revenue.

Weak Backup Bench

At the same time, Thiam shows little sign of fatigue after the overhaul. His bitter dispute with Khan illustrates his low tolerance for ambition from underlings. Unfortunately for Thiam, Khan's exit also considerably depletes Credit Suisse's internal heirs to the top spot.

Rohner has to show a handful of viable candidates to replace the CEO before his own term as chairman ends in 2021 (to be sure, directors can easily find the justification to extend their mandates). 

The spy scandal has given the Credit Suisse chairman the upper hand in a long-standing game of brinkmanship with Thiam. The CEO's future was hanging by a thread just days ago, but Rohner didn't sever it. It remains to be seen how the chairman plays his trump cards.