Rolf Soiron
former Chairman, Board of the Holcim Foundation and Chairman, Board of Holcim Ltd
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Global Holcim Awards jury meeting 2012 in March 2012 in Zurich, Switzerland: Members of the Global Holcim Awards Jury 2012 (l-r): Rolf Soiron, Mario Botta, Maria Atkinson, Yolanda Kakabadse, Werner Sobek, Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Aaron Betsky, Enrique Norten (head), Hans-Rudolf Schalcher, Rahul Mehrotra.
Rolf Soiron is former Chairman of the Board of the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction (2004-18); and former Member of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and of its Council (2009-17).
Last updated: July 07, 2021 Basel, Switzerland
Rolf Soiron is former Chairman of the Board of the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction.
He was Chairman since the inception of the Advisory Board of the then Holcim Foundation in 2004; and stepped down from the Board of the Holcim Foundation in April 2018.
He was a Member of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and of its Council (2009-17).
Rolf Soiron was elected to the Board of Holcim, a global leader in construction materials in 1994, and became Chairman in 2003. He stepped down in 2014 after leading the merger negotiations to form Holcim in 2015.
He studied history at the University of Basel, Switzerland, where he obtained a PhD summa cum laude (1972). He also holds a post masters degree from the Harvard Business School (1980).
Rolf Soiron began his professional career in 1972 with Sandoz – a predecessor of Novartis – where he held various positions, ultimately as COO of Sandoz Pharma with the responsibility for the global pharmaceuticals business. He also ran Protek, a European leader in artificial hip and knee joints, for four years.
He was CEO and then Managing Director of Jungbunzlauer (1993-2003), a global specialist in organic acids and global leader in its core business, where he remains a member of the Board. He was a co-founder of the Swiss boutique Bank am Bellevue, of which he was a Board member (1993-2005).
He was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nobel Biocare (2003-10); and also a member of the Board of orthopaedic implants firm Stratec, which subsequently merged into the Synthes Group (1995-2005). He was Chairman of the Board of Lonza (2005-18), one of the world’s leading active ingredient manufacturers for pharmaceuticals, agriculture and personal care.
Rolf Soiron was President of the Basel University Council (1995-2006). Founded in 1460, Basel University is Switzerland’s oldest university. He is a Chairman of the Foundation Board of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva.
He has been active in Swiss public office, serving on executive branches, in his State assembly and in several select and expert commission at community and State level. He was elected President of Avenir Suisse (2009-14) an independent think tank promoting the social and economic development of Switzerland. He was also a member of the Board of the Swiss business association “economiesuisse”.
He moderated the Concluding Debate at all Holcim Forums: Zurich (2004), Shanghai (2007), Mexico City (2010), Mumbai (2013), and Detroit (2016) as well as the Concluding Panel “Sustainability vs Security” at the 15th International Architectural Biennale in Venice (2016).
Rolf Soiron was a member of the Global Holcim Awards jury in 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2018.
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