Eric Olsen: Mixing it

The Chicago-born Eric Olsen has lived in France for 11 years, but only became a citizen one year ago and his French accent is still mixed with an American twang.

However, it was not his Frenchness that won him the job this week as the first chief executive of the merging French and Swiss cement groups - Lafarge and Holcim - quite the opposite.

The Lafarge veteran was brought in to lead the merger between the groups in part because he was a fresh international face - neither French nor Swiss - which people hope will help him iron over political and cultural difference.

These rivalries among key Holcim and Lafarge figures - partly personal and cultural - nearly tore apart the €41bn merger to create the world's largest cement group, say people close to the discussions.

A year of brewing tensions, culminated last month with a bitter campaign by Holcim to oust Lafarge chief executive Bruno Lafont from running the new combined group as well as to renegotiate the financial terms of the deal.

This week, as the companies attempted to put this behind them, Mr Olsen presented himself as someone who could not only successfully marry two large and complex global cement businesses, but also two cultures as well.

"I see my role not only as the operational leader but also as the integrator of cultures," he said in Paris, sitting next to Mr Lafont, who after the latest battle is now set to become co-chairman of the new group.

"My goal is to shape one unified group out of two great companies - and create an enormous amount of value," he added.

Being foreign is not the only reason the 51-year-old was chosen to lead the new company.

Over 16 years at Lafarge he is one of the company's most experienced executives, having done jobs in the financial, human resources and the industrial side of the business.

He graduated from Colorado University and HEC School of Management in Paris and started his career working in consultancy at Deloitte & Touche, Banque Paribas, and Trinity Associates.

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His other career milestones were the integration of Orascom, the Middle Eastern cement company, which was bought by Lafarge in 2007 as well as helping to organise the reorganisation of the group in 2012.

Married to a Quebecois, and with two children, he says that he fell in love with France at a young age because of the "culture, history and quality of life", and decided to take citizenship to "make my life here".

Ironically, he will now be mainly based in Switzerland. The deal struck between the two groups means headquarters of LafargeHolcim will be in Zurich. However, he says that this will give him good opportunities for skiing.

Mr Olsen has never run a company so large or so complex. The combined group - which still needs final shareholder approval next month - will have 140,000 employees and revenues of about €30bn.

Mike Betts, analyst at Jefferies, who knows him from his time with Lafarge in the US, said he had faith in Mr Olsen to win over investors, adding he was a "strong operator, presenter and team player, who well understood the needs of the financial markets".

Mr Olsen, who is also president of the American School of Paris in his free time, did admit this week the major challenges ahead in integrating the two groups over the next 12 to 18 months.

He will need to find €1.4bn worth of promised synergies, a number that has raised eyebrows among industry analysts.

"We are going to make one team, and forget who was at Lafarge and who was at Holcim and make one company - LafargeHolcim," he said.

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