LafargeHolcim announced the appointment of Jan Jenisch as chief executive officer, effective October 16. He succeeds Eric Olsen who announced his resignation in late April, effective July 15, due to fallout from the company’s admission that it had struck deals with armed groups in Syria. LafargeHolcim Chairman Beat Hess will become the interim CEO during the transition period.
Jenisch joins LafargeHolcim from Sika AG, which has a leading global position in the development and production of systems and products for the building materials and automotive sectors. He has been CEO of the company since January 2012. Under his leadership, Sika developed its business in new markets and set new standards of performance in sales and profitability. As a result, the market capitalization of Sika has more than tripled and the company recently gained admission to the Swiss Market Index.
Hess said, “Jan Jenisch is a CEO that is widely respected for consistently delivering strong business results and he comes with a deep understanding of the building materials sector. His agile leadership style and his personal skills will be a good fit with our company culture and the management team of LafargeHolcim. I look forward to working with him to accelerate the strategy execution of our company.”
“I am delighted to have the opportunity to join LafargeHolcim,” said Jenisch. “It is an iconic company and a global leader in the building materials industry with enormous future potential. I very much look forward to joining the global management team and to leading the company into a very successful future.”
Jenisch joined Sika in 1996 and has since worked in various management functions and countries. He was appointed to the management board in 2004 as head of the industry division and he served as president – Asia Pacific from 2007 to 2012. He will be replaced by Paul Schuler as CEO. Schuler most recently held the role of regional manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. A 29-year Sika veteran, he has led two of the company’s four business regions.
Seperately, LafargeHolcim announced that Roland Köhler, currently executive committee member with responsibility for Europe, Australia/New Zealand and Trading, will be appointed chief operating officer.
