Empire builder
In this exclusive interview with ICR, Thomas Schmidheiny (72), major shareholder and Honorary Chairman of LafargeHolcim, traces the origins of the company from its single plant in the village of Holderbank (Aargau) in 1912 to the leading global construction materials company that it is today. Dr Schmidheiny was responsible for leading Holcim through its most remarkable growth period, culminating in the merger with Lafarge in 2015.
Having led the company since 1978, through the most dynamic period of internationalisation and through to the 2015
merger of Holcim with Lafarge, Thomas Schmidheiny is now LafargeHolcim’s Honorary Chairman and a leading
shareholder via the Schmidheiny family office, Spectrum Value Management Ltd (Switzerland)
LafargeHolcim is today the largest multiregional cement company, with operations in 80 countries and around 350Mta capacity under its control. But the story starts in the village of Holderbank, Switzerland, in 1914 and follows the fortunes of the Schmidheiny family, who over three generations built the leading global construction materials company.
