Thomas Schmidheiny
Thomas Schmidheiny is a Swiss billionaire businessman, and the former chairman of cement manufacturer Holcim.
Early life
Thomas Schmidheiny was born in 1945, the son of Max Schmidheiny. The family's construction materials empire was divided in 1984, with Thomas inheriting Holcim, the concrete and cement company, and his brother Stephan, also a billionaire, was given the construction company Eternit.Career
Until 2003, Schmidheiny was the chairman of Holcim, one of the world's leading cement manufacturers, founded by his grand-uncle in 1912. Schmidheiny resigned his chairmanship as part of a deal to settle an investigation of insider trading in Spain. He has remained on the Board since that time. Since the merger between Holcim and Lafarge Thomas Schmidheiny retains 11.4% of the company Lafarge-Holcim and is the biggest shareholder of the firm.Schmidheiny is a member of the Executive Advisory Board of the World.Minds Foundation.