Four days before he was named Ivorian prime minister on 16 October, Robert Beugré Mambé was enjoying a quiet stay in Paris, a world away from the media exposure he has since enjoyed. No one was more surprised he was when Alassane Ouattara offered him the job as a reward for more than a decade of loyalty to the president. His profile contrasts with his two predecessors, Hamed Bakayoko and Patrick Achi, whose unspoken presidential ambitions annoyed the Ivorian president, to the point of precipitating