The new year has introduced many new faces to the industry’s top jobs. Quarry looks at the latest movers and shakers for 2025.
For companies in the building materials space in Australia and, more broadly, worldwide, it was a season of change in many respects.
Last year, companies, including Holcim and CRH, announced a range of acquisitions to re-shape their businesses alongside fresh leadership to usher in new eras at their respective companies.
At Holcim, Miljan Gutovic is still in his first year at the helm of the global entity after taking over from Jan Jenisch in May 2024. The Australian national holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a PhD in engineering from the University of Technology in Sydney.
Gutovic first joined Holcim as its head of the Middle East and Africa before he was elevated to the region head of Europe in 2022, which focused on decarbonisation.
Taking over from Jenisch was a significant step given his indelible legacy as chief executive officer of Holcim, which he served from 2017 to 2024. Jenisch, who remains chairman of the board of directors at Holcim, helped hire Gutovic when the latter joined the company in 2018.
“I am very pleased that the Board has appointed Miljan as the new CEO of Holcim. He is a highly qualified successor who has played an instrumental role in Holcim’s successful transformation to become the leader in innovative and sustainable building solutions. Miljan has strengthened our business with record profitability in Europe, closing strategic transactions and building winning teams,” Jenisch said about Gutovic’s appointment last year.
Jenisch plays a significant role in one of Holcim’s most prominent changes: the US listing of Holcim North America. If the company’s planned US listing is approved at the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders in the first quarter of 2025, it is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025.
According to Jenisch, the move was motivated by Holcim’s interest in expanding further into the North American market, fueled by the consistent demand from the region’s construction market.
“The success of our North American business makes it the leading pure-play building solutions company in the region. With a US listing, we will unleash its full potential to be the partner of choice for our customers in one of the world’s most attractive construction markets,” he said.
As that shift continues, so too does Gutovic’s role in re-shaping what Holcim will look like and where his experience in decarbonisation strategy will come to the forefront.
The company has divested assets in Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, and others in recent years, while acquisitions with a low-carbon or recycled materials focus have come in their place. The company had six acquisitions in the previous third quarter, including Belgium’s Mark Desmedt, Switzerland’s Cand-Landi, Land Recovery in the United Kingdom and Tensolite in the Latin American market.
Gutovic has spoken openly about his desire to see “enablers” for decarbonisation, which would support Holcim’s focus in this sector and its recent acquisitions.
“We are in the full execution phase. We are working on decarbonising Holcim [and] the construction industries, making our cities more sustainable and also we’re driving circular construction,” Gutovic said at the World Economic Forum in 2024.
“We need two things; the first [is a] regulatory framework to ensure fast execution and deployment of carbon capture technologies. Secondly, we need new norms and legislation to accelerate using more low-carbon solutions.”
Elsewhere, global construction materials supplier CRH made a series of significant announcements that will be watched closely in 2025.
On the top of that list is Jim Mintern stepping up as the chief executive officer after Albert Manifold stepped down at the end of 2024.
Manifold served for a decade in the top job before announcing his decision to retire alongside a succession plan in September last year. Mintern took over the role after over two decades with CRH, including a stint as chief financial officer. At the announcement, Manifold was confident about the “bright future” that awaited CRH under Mintern’s leadership.
“I am pleased that Jim, who has a deep understanding of CRH, will succeed me when I retire at the end of this year. This will be his time,” he said.
“Jim’s experience, capabilities and ambition for the business ideally position him to lead the CRH team forward through an era of enormous opportunity.”
One of the most significant moves from CRH came when it finalised the agreement for a majority stake in Australian construction materials company Adbri in collaboration with Barro Group.
The deal gave Adbri an implied equity value of $2.1 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, Barro Group maintained its shares while CRH claimed any non-Barro shares (57 per cent) for its majority stake.
“Adbri is an attractive business with high-quality assets and leading market positions that complement our core competencies in cement, concrete and aggregates while creating additional opportunities for growth and development for our existing Australian business,” Manifold said in 2024.
The company has reshaped its focus on several core markets. Alongside its Australian acquisition, CRH divested its lime assets across Europe, including Poland, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Ireland, throughout 2024 and completed a sizeable deal with Martin Marietta for cement and ready-mixed concrete assets in Texas in February 2024. It leaves the company with a strong group of assets and footholds in significant markets within the construction materials sector as Mintern enters his first year as chief executive officer.
Also, on Australian shores, CSR underwent a leadership change: Paul Dalton replaced Julie Coates following the company’s acquisition by Saint-Gobain.
Saint-Gobain’s interest in CSR emerged as the international company focused on shaping its business around “light and sustainable construction”.
“This [is a] major transaction in Australia’s attractive high-growth construction market, which is underpinned by solid macroeconomic fundamentals. The acquisition will strengthen our presence in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific markets,” said Benoit Bazin, chairman and chief executive officer of Saint-Gobain.
“We see a tremendous opportunity to build on CSR’s strengths to further accelerate its growth in the region.”
The deal was finalised in July 2024, and Coates stepped down from her dual roles as managing director and CEO of CSR while continuing to serve on the CSR board.
Dalton, who previously served as executive general manager for interior systems at CSR, was announced as her successor. His term began when CSR was delisted from the ASX.
“I would like to thank Julie Coates for her incredible leadership. I’m thrilled by this deal with Saint-Gobain and all the potential it will unleash and look forward to working closely with the Saint-Gobain team as we continue to innovate and deliver for our customers, our team, and our business,” Dalton said at the announcement.
“I look forward to our continued strong profitable growth in the building solutions market in Australia and New Zealand, under the Saint-Gobain umbrella.” •
