Holcim CFO Steffen Kindler on executing a regional spinoff, AI value creation, and team leadership.
This article appears in the July/August issue of Global Finance Magazine.
Steffen Kindler has served as Holcim’s CFO since 2023. He brings with him two decades of finance leadership experience from his time at Nestlé. He now guides the financial strategy of the Swiss multinational building materials giant, which generated CHF15.7 billion (approximately $19.7 billion) in net sales last year.
Holcim, listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange, commands a global footprint with more than 45,000 employees. It operates across 43 markets in Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Global Finance: What do you consider your main achievements since joining Holcim?
Steffen Kindler: A major achievement was helping drive the decision to split Holcim into a North American company and a rest-of-the-world company, and then successfully executing the spinoff. We completed a financial carve-out, established the new company’s finance organization, and listed the North American entity on the New York Stock Exchange. Since then, both companies have operated smoothly and separately.
Another major achievement was defining a standalone company strategy and equity story. We identified where we want to grow, how we want to allocate capital, the financial KPIs we want to be measured against, and our people plan. The strategy was very well received by the financial markets, reflected in strong share price appreciation throughout 2025.
Since then, the focus has been on executing that strategy quarter after quarter, demonstrating progress on both the strategy and our financial results, and earning the confidence and support of shareholders and stakeholders.
GF: Why did you split off the North American entity?
Kindler: The logic was sustainability and different market environments. In Europe, decarbonizing the product portfolio and production process was a key driver of our strategy and financial success. In the U.S., customers were more focused on volume growth, and the sustainability strategy was not as relevant. We felt the regions were hindering each other more than helping.
GF: Holcim expects AI to generate CHF200 million in recurring EBIT by 2028. How so?
Kindler: We began exploring AI more than three years ago and felt we were leading in that area. Technology has now matured to the point that we can reliably say it is creating value. Rather than focusing on savings or restructuring, we see AI as a value-creation tool.
Key applications include predictive maintenance, where AI anticipates machine breakdowns, and commercial sales where AI analyzes large amounts of data to optimize our offers to customers for all types of building projects. We are already seeing tangible benefits of roughly CHF30 million this year, even before scaling these programs further.
GF: Can you provide details on how you expect to achieve that EBIT goal?
Kindler: Holcim said that roughly half of the CHF200 million AI benefit will come from additional profit and the other half from cost avoidance. Predictive maintenance helps avoid losses by reducing breakdowns, while AI supporting the commercial teams creates additional value by giving them better insights, faster project proposals, and the ability to participate in more projects. It gives commercial teams insights into how the different inputs of an offer were determined and reduces the manual work involved in bidding. By automating data analysis and proposals, teams can evaluate more projects and focus on judgment and decision-making rather than information gathering.
GF: How important is it to have a strong finance team?
Kindler: I cannot do a job of this scale on my own: the team is everything. I spend about a third of my time on people-related topics, including succession planning, coaching, and career development. We have a structured process for discussing talent, open jobs, strengths and weaknesses, and career paths with regional CFOs and direct reports. It is also important to keep people motivated by giving them interesting roles, exposure, and support through an open-door approach.
Tiziana Barghini is a contributing writer based in New York.
