LafargeHolcim Chairman Wolfgang Reitzle informed the board of directors that he will not stand for re-election at the company’s May 2016 Annual General Meeting. Reitzle is leaving his post less than a year after it was created to return to German industrial gas company Linde AG. The board will propose to its shareholders the election of Beat Hess as its new chairman.
Reitzle was instrumental to the successful merger between Lafarge and Holcim in 2015. “Wolfgang Reitzle’s contribution to bringing the two groups together, and to creating the new leader in the building materials industry, has been invaluable,” said Paul Desmarais, chairman of the LafargeHolcim nomination and compensation committee.
Reitzle commented, “I am satisfied that LafargeHolcim is now fully on track with realizing the benefits of the combined businesses. With its committed people and leading position in markets around the globe, LafargeHolcim is well placed to reach its targets”.
Beat Hess is currently vice-chairman of the board, a member of the strategy & sustainable development committee and a member of the finance & audit committee. He was elected to the board of directors of then Holcim Ltd in 2010. From 1977 to 2003, he was legal counsel and later general counsel of the ABB Group. From 2004 until the end of 2010, he was legal director and a member of the executive committee of the Royal Dutch Shell Group, London and The Hague. He is also a member of the board of directors of Nestlé S.A. and of Sonova Holding AG.
