Miljan Gutović

Overview

Miljan Gutović
Born	1979 (age 46–47) Sarajevo, Yugoslavia (now Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Citizenship	Australia
Education	Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering; PhD in Materials Science and Engineering
Alma mater	University of Technology Sydney
Occupation(s)	Civil engineer and business executive
Employer	Holcim Group
Known for	CEO of Holcim and advocacy of low-carbon construction materials
Title	Chief Executive Officer
Term	May 2024–present
Predecessor	Jan Jenisch
Board member of	Global Cement and Concrete Association; World Business Council for Sustainable Development; LafargeHolcim Maroc; Heracles Cement

🏗️ Miljan Gutović (born 1979) is a Sarajevo-born Australian civil engineer and business executive who has served as chief executive officer (CEO) of Holcim, the Swiss-based building materials group, since May 2024. He rose through regional leadership roles at construction chemicals company Sika AG and then at Holcim before taking the helm of one of the world’s largest cement and concrete producers, with his tenure closely associated with efforts to decarbonise a sector responsible for a significant share of global carbon emissions. His leadership has been framed around shifting Holcim’s portfolio from traditional, volume-driven cement production toward higher-value, low-carbon building solutions, drawing on a technical background that includes doctoral research on reducing the climate impact of cement.

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Early life and education

👶 Early years. Gutović was born in Sarajevo in 1979, in what was then Yugoslavia, and spent his early childhood in the Balkans before his family emigrated to Australia. After resettling, he obtained Australian citizenship, and later business and media profiles commonly described him as a Sarajevo-born Australian leading a Swiss-headquartered multinational, reflecting the multi-continental nature of his personal and professional trajectory.

🎓 Academic training. Showing an early aptitude for science and engineering, Gutović studied civil engineering at the University of Technology Sydney, earning a bachelor's degree in 2002 before completing a PhD in materials science and engineering at the same institution. His doctoral research explored how waste clay materials could be used in cement formulations to lower their carbon footprint, anticipating by more than two decades the current focus on low-clinker, low-carbon building materials that would later become central to his corporate agenda.

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Career

🧪 Construction chemicals career. Following his academic training, Gutović joined Swiss construction chemicals company Sika AG, where he progressed through technical and managerial roles as the firm expanded globally in speciality additives and systems for concrete and construction. His responsibilities at Sika included assignments as an area manager in the Middle East and as a general manager in Australia, giving him both regional experience in fast-growing markets and operational exposure in his adopted home country before moving into executive roles in the cement industry.

🌐 Holcim Middle East and Africa leadership. In mid-2018, LafargeHolcim—later rebranded as Holcim—recruited Gutović to join its executive committee, with CEO Jan Jenisch appointing him head of the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. The MEA portfolio included underperforming markets such as Nigeria, Algeria and Egypt, where the group had struggled with profitability and had reshuffled management several times. In this position, Gutović focused on restoring performance by tightening operational efficiency, tailoring products and commercial solutions to local market needs, and seeking growth in infrastructure and urbanisation-driven demand across the region.

🇪🇺 Europe and operational excellence. In November 2022 Holcim expanded Gutović’s remit by appointing him region head for Europe, its largest and most mature market, while also giving him responsibility for the group’s global operational excellence organisation. As European head, he oversaw a period in which the business delivered record profitability with industry-leading EBIT margins, helped by price management, efficiency gains and an intensified focus on low-carbon products such as ECOPact concrete and ECOPlanet cement. Concurrently, in his operational excellence role he promoted initiatives to reduce Holcim’s carbon footprint through greater use of renewable energy at plants, wider deployment of low-clinker formulations using calcined clays and other alternative materials, and early-stage projects in carbon capture, utilisation and storage across selected sites.

🧱 Appointment as chief executive. In May 2024 Gutović succeeded Jenisch as CEO of Holcim, assuming leadership of a group with annual revenues of roughly CHF 29 billion and becoming one of the youngest chief executives in the global cement industry. His promotion came at a pivotal moment, as Holcim pursued a plan to spin off its North American operations—ultimately listed as Amrîze—into a separately traded company intended to crystallise value from strong growth prospects in the United States construction and infrastructure markets. Following this announcement, Holcim’s strategic focus for its remaining businesses shifted even more toward Europe and other regions where it aims to combine relatively higher margins with a portfolio centred on sustainable construction solutions.

📈 Strategic focus and acquisitions. As chief executive, Gutović has articulated a strategy that treats decarbonisation as a driver of profitable growth, positioning Holcim’s transition “from volume to value” as a way to reconcile climate objectives with shareholder returns. He has maintained an active mergers-and-acquisitions programme focused on roofing, insulation and other green building technologies; in 2025, for example, Holcim agreed to purchase German building materials company Xella in a transaction valued at about €1.85 billion as part of a broader pipeline of potential deals. In interviews he has emphasised that any larger acquisitions must align with Holcim’s decarbonisation targets and financial discipline, signalling a preference for expanding in lower-carbon, solutions-oriented segments rather than adding traditional clinker capacity.

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Financials and board roles

💰 Compensation and equity stake. As CEO of a Swiss-listed multinational, Gutović receives a remuneration package combining fixed salary with variable incentives in cash and equity. For 2024, covering the period from his appointment in May to the end of the financial year, Holcim reported total compensation of approximately CHF 4.16 million for Gutović, including a pro-rated base salary of around CHF 1.2 million and performance-linked share-based awards. By comparison, his predecessor Jenisch received about CHF 9.5 million in 2023, illustrating the scale of incentives attached to Holcim’s top job. Public filings and market data indicate that Gutović holds just over 100,000 Holcim shares—equivalent to roughly 0.02% of the company’s outstanding equity—placing the value of his personal stake in the low tens of millions of dollars at early-2025 share prices and situating his overall wealth in the multimillionaire range typical for large-company chief executives.

🏛️ Board memberships and industry roles. In addition to his executive responsibilities, Gutović participates in a number of boards and industry bodies connected to construction and sustainability. He serves on the board of the Global Cement and Concrete Association and sits on the executive committee of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, reflecting Holcim’s engagement in sector-wide efforts to set climate and circular-economy standards. Within the Holcim group he has acted as a non-executive director or chair of key subsidiaries, including LafargeHolcim Maroc and Greek affiliate Heracles Cement, providing oversight of local operations in markets considered strategically important for the company. Unlike some prominent chief executives, he does not feature extensively on boards outside Holcim’s core domain, with his directorships largely centred on cement, concrete and related sustainability initiatives.

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Personal life and leadership style

🧬 Multicultural background. Commentators frequently highlight Gutović’s multicultural trajectory—from his birth in Sarajevo, through his upbringing and education in Australia, to his current role in Switzerland—as emblematic of a more globally diverse executive cadre in the traditionally conservative cement industry. Business profiles commonly describe him as a Sarajevo-born Australian running a Swiss multinational, blending elements of Balkan resilience, Australian directness and Swiss corporate culture in his leadership style. A widely shared profile based on a Fortune article referred to him as “the concrete-loving Australian”, underlining that he is perceived not as a detached financier but as an engineer deeply engaged with the core product of the business he leads.

🤝 Management approach. Inside Holcim, Gutović is characterised as combining an approachable demeanour with a strong performance orientation, encouraging entrepreneurial thinking in local markets while maintaining clear expectations on results and accountability. In interviews and internal communications he has stressed that Holcim should remain an organisation where performance is recognised and rewarded, and he regularly reinforces that health and safety are the group’s top priority in an industry associated with heavy industrial risks. He has also linked diversity and talent development to business success, arguing that the company’s workforce of more than 60,000 employees in over 60 countries benefits from inclusive leadership and systematic efforts to nurture internal talent.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Family and personal motivations. Gutović keeps his private life largely out of public view, and available information indicates that he is married with children but prefers to shield his family from media attention. When discussing climate change and Holcim’s long-term strategy, he has occasionally referred to his children and future generations as a source of motivation, linking his professional focus on decarbonising construction to a broader personal concern about the world that will be inherited by younger people.

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Controversies and challenges

🌡️ Carbon footprint and scrutiny. As CEO of Holcim, one of the world’s largest producers of cement and concrete, Gutović leads a company whose operations have a substantial carbon footprint. Historical analyses of fossil-fuel and cement emissions attribute around 0.42% of global emissions since the mid-18th century to Holcim and its predecessors, placing the group at the centre of debates about corporate responsibility for climate change. This legacy has made Holcim a frequent target for environmental activists and an important test case for how high-emitting industries can credibly transition toward net-zero pathways under leaders such as Gutović.

⚖️ Climate litigation. In 2023 a group of residents from Pulau Pari, a low-lying Indonesian island, brought a climate lawsuit in Switzerland against Holcim, seeking compensation for flooding and other damage they attribute to sea-level rise exacerbated by the company’s greenhouse-gas emissions. The case, filed in Swiss courts where Holcim is headquartered, has been described as a pioneering attempt to hold a major cement producer legally liable for climate impacts far from its home jurisdiction and is seen as a bellwether for future transnational climate litigation. Holcim has responded that climate change is a systemic problem requiring coordinated global policy and industry action rather than litigation against individual firms, but the proceedings underscore the legal and reputational risks that Gutović must navigate as he promotes the company’s net-zero strategy.

♻️ Decarbonisation strategy and criticism. Under Jenisch and continuing under Gutović, Holcim has reoriented its portfolio by divesting conventional cement assets—such as its large Indian operations and certain businesses in Indonesia, Brazil and parts of the Middle East—while acquiring companies in roofing, insulation and other “solutions and products” segments viewed as more compatible with a low-carbon growth strategy. Some industry observers and environmental organisations have questioned whether such divestments amount to genuine decarbonisation or simply transfer emissions to other owners; Ian Riley, chief executive of the World Cement Association, has publicly asked whether Holcim’s programme of asset sales means it is “stepping down” as a climate leader in the sector. In response, Holcim and Gutović point to science-based targets endorsed by external initiatives and to investments in process innovations—including large-scale carbon-capture projects at European plants and greater use of alternative binders—to argue that the company is also addressing the underlying emissions intensity of cement production while reshaping its portfolio.

🧩 Governance, risk and future tests. Gutović also faces ongoing governance and risk-management challenges linked to Holcim’s history and the cyclicality of its markets. The group continues to deal with reputational fallout from earlier controversies at Lafarge in Syria, which pre-dated his time at the company but led to fines and legal settlements in the 2020s, prompting efforts to strengthen compliance structures and codes of conduct. Since joining Holcim’s leadership he has had to steer the business through shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on construction activity and inflationary pressures on energy and transport costs, while integrating acquisitions and scaling up decarbonisation technologies whose commercial viability is still being tested. Analysts identify the execution of this strategy—balancing profitability, capital discipline and climate commitments—as a key benchmark by which Gutović’s tenure will ultimately be assessed.

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Other activities and legacy

🌏 Global profile. Gutović’s career, spanning the Balkans, Australia and Switzerland, has made him a regular participant in international forums on business and sustainability. He has spoken at gatherings such as the St. Gallen Symposium and is a recurrent attendee at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where discussions about decarbonising heavy industry and the role of materials companies in the energy transition feature prominently. These appearances, combined with Holcim’s high profile in the cement and concrete value chain, have contributed to his emergence as one of the more visible industry voices in global debates on climate and infrastructure.

🔬 Technical credibility. Unlike many large-company chief executives whose backgrounds are rooted in finance or general management, Gutović holds a doctorate in engineering that is directly related to the core products his company manufactures. Colleagues and observers have noted that this technical grounding enables him to engage in detailed discussions with scientists and plant engineers about low-carbon cement and concrete innovations, while also translating those conversations into strategic decisions on capital allocation and product development at board level.

🔭 Continuity and outlook. Commentators often frame Gutović’s tenure as combining continuity with renewal: having worked closely with Jenisch on restructuring Holcim, he is seen as extending the strategic shift toward diversified building solutions while placing particular emphasis on delivering on net-zero commitments and scaling up green products such as ECOPact and ECOPlanet. Holcim’s share price rose following announcements about the planned North American spin-off and broader portfolio adjustments, suggesting investor support for the strategy; however, the long-term verdict on Gutović’s leadership will depend on whether the group can sustain strong financial performance while achieving the deep emissions reductions laid out in its climate plans.

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References

📚 References.