Thomas Schmidheiny (born 17 December 1945) is a Swiss billionaire businessman, and the former chairman of cement manufacturer

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 ...

Early life

Thomas Schmidheiny was born in 1945, the son of

Max Schmidheiny Max Schmidheiny (1908–1991) was a Swiss industrialist. In 1984, he divided the family construction materials empire between his sons, Thomas Schmidheiny inheriting Holcim, the concrete and cement company, and Stephan Schmidheiny Stephan Ernst ...

(1908-1991). The family's construction materials empire (bricks, cement, etc.) 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 Eternit is a registered trademark for a brand of fibre cement currently owned by the Belgian company Etex. Fibre is often applied in building and construction materials, mainly in roofing and facade products. Material description The term "ce ...

Career

Until 2003, Schmidheiny was the chairman of

, 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

and

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 ( ...

Thomas Schmidheiny retains 11.4% of the company Lafarge-Holcim and is the biggest shareholder of the firm.

Education

Schmidheiny holds a doctorate from

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

and a bachelor's degree from Zurich Polytechnic, and an MBA from IMD Business School, Switzerland.

Honors

The

Indian School of Business The Indian School of Business (ISB) is a private business school established in India in 2001. It has two parallel campuses in India, in Hyderabad (Telangana) and Mohali (Punjab). It offers certificates in various post-graduate management prog ...

has a Thomas Schmidheiny chair of family business. As of 2012, the post was held by Kavil Ramachandran.

Personal life

Schmidheiny is married with four children; he owns vineyards and wineries in Argentina, Switzerland and the US, including his residence in

Klosters Klosters is a Switzerland, Swiss village in the Prättigau, politically part of the Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality of Klosters-Serneus, which belongs to the political district Prättigau/Davos Region, Prättigau/Davos in the Cantons o ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidheiny, Thomas Swiss businesspeople Swiss billionaires Living people Tufts University alumni 1945 births

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...