Bruno Lafont (born 8 June 1956) is a French businessman. He served as the chief executive officer of

Lafarge La Farge, LaFarge or Lafarge can refer to: People * Antoinette LaFarge (1966–), American artist and writer * Christopher Grant LaFarge (1862–1938), American architect and partner in the firm Heins & LaFarge * Christopher Grant La Farge ( ...

from 2006 to 2015, when it merged with

Holcim Holcim is a Swiss-based global building materials and aggregates flagship division of the Holcim Group. The original company was merged on 10 July 2015 with Lafarge to form LafargeHolcim as the new company and renamed to Holcim Group in 2021 ...

to become

LafargeHolcim Holcim is a Swiss-based global building materials and aggregates flagship division of the Holcim Group. The original company was merged on 10 July 2015 with Lafarge to form LafargeHolcim as the new company and renamed to Holcim Group in 202 ...

. He served as the co-chairman of LafargeHolcim from 2015 to April 2017.

Early life

Lafont was born in 1956. He graduated from

HEC Paris HEC Paris (french: École des hautes études commerciales de Paris) is a business school, and one of the most prestigious and selective grandes écoles, located in Jouy-en-Josas, France. HEC offers Master in Management, MSc International Fi ...

in 1977 as well as the

École nationale d'administration The École nationale d'administration (generally referred to as ENA, en, National School of Administration) was a French ''grande école'', created in 1945 by President of France, President Charles de Gaulle and principal author of the Constitu ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Career

Lafont joined

as an auditor in the finance department in 1983, He subsequently worked in Germany and Turkey. He was appointed as its CEO on January 1, 2006. Under his tenure, he oversaw the international expansion of Lafarge to 70 countries, including the acquisition of minority shareholders in Lafarge North America. Additionally, he cut costs by 60% within the first year, notably by divesting from its roof-manufacturing subsidiary. By December 2008, he acquired Orascom Cement, a subsidiary of

Orascom Construction Industries Orascom Construction PLC (OC) is an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor based in Cairo, Egypt. The company was Egypt's first multinational corporation and stands at the core of the Orascom Group companies. OC is active in mo ...

, for €8.8 billion, and he brought billionaires

Albert Frère Albert, Baron Frère (4 February 1926 – 3 December 2018) was a Belgian billionaire businessman. Early life Frère grew up as a son of a nail merchant and helped in the business since an early age. His father died when Frère was 17; Frère ha ...

and

Nassef Sawiris Nassef Onsi Sawiris ( ar, ناصف أنسي ساويرس; born January 19, 1961) is an Egyptian billionaire businessman, and the youngest of Onsi Sawiris' three sons (his brothers are Naguib and Samih). As of October 2021, his net worth was es ...

to Lafarge's board. He stepped down as CEO in 2015, shortly after its merger with

. He was awarded a €2.5 million

bonus Bonus commonly means: * Bonus, a Commonwealth term for a distribution of profits to a with-profits insurance policy * Bonus payment, an extra payment received as a reward for doing one's job well or as an incentive Bonus may also refer to: Plac ...

for it. He served as the co-chairman of LafargeHolcim until April 2017. Lafont serves on the boards of directors of

Électricité de France Électricité de France S.A. (literally ''Electricity of France''), commonly known as EDF, is a French multinational electric utility company, largely owned by the French state. Headquartered in Paris, with €71.2 billion in revenues in 2 ...

and

ArcelorMittal ArcelorMittal S.A. is a Luxembourgian multinational steel manufacturing corporation headquartered in Luxembourg City. It was formed in 2006 from the takeover and merger of Arcelor by Indian-owned Mittal Steel. ArcelorMittal is the second larg ...

. He is an advisor to the mayor of

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Romanization, alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a Direct-administered municipalities of China, municipality in Southwes ...

in China. He is also the chairman of the

Fondation nationale pour l'enseignement de la gestion The Fondation nationale pour l'enseignement de la gestion des entreprises (''National Foundation for Business Management Education''), best known by its acronym FNEGE is a French foundation for the development and involvement of academic education ...

Personal life

Lafont is married to Marie-Constance de Maistre, a violinist and a descendant of

Joseph de Maistre Joseph Marie, comte de Maistre (; 1 April 1753 – 26 February 1821) was a Savoyard philosopher, writer, lawyer, and diplomat who advocated social hierarchy and monarchy in the period immediately following the French Revolution. Despite his clos ...

Works

References

1956 births Living people People from Boulogne-Billancourt Lycée Louis-le-Grand alumni HEC Paris alumni École nationale d'administration alumni French chief executives French chairpersons of corporations French corporate directors Électricité de France people Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur {{France-business-bio-stub