Former VP and General Manager of Calderys resigned from Imerys

2017-12-08

Dec. 7, 2017 - Mr. John Maxwell, former VP and General Manager of Monolithics Division CEO (Calderys) resigned from Imerys group on December 6, 2017.

During his time in Calderys, he had a full P&L responsibility for a division with 3500 employees across 18 industrial sites with entities in 29 countries, a turnover of €550M, safety performance below 1 lost time accident / million hours worked and ebitda >€65M.

• Completed 8 acquisitions (€80M) to increase growth sales by increasing engineering and design services and to enter new markets including the USA and Indonesia.
• Implemented a commercial excellence program impacting 150 commercial staff, focused on transactional pricing, sales force effectiveness, and sales management. The €1.5M program had a commercial payback of less than 12 months. 
• Transformed the European region (€300M) from a country management model to a regional model with four commercial segment teams. Included restructuring to lower fixed and overhead costs by €10M annually.
• Combined Calderys innovation lab with Imerys to leverage a larger innovation resource.
• Actively participated as a director in industry associations both at European and global level.

• Attracted new talent to the divisional executive team, increasing diversity and building succession possibilities. 

Mr. John Maxwell also published an open letter to say goodbye:

"It has been a pleasure to lead Calderys since 2013. The energy, passion, and commitment of the Calderys teams across the globe have been a constant inspiration. I am happy to call many of you friends, and being able to celebrate with you in Edinburgh this year was a highlight.

Calderys has always been a leader, and I am proud of advancements the Calderys teams have made on Safety, Continuous Improvement, Commercial Excellence and Employee Engagement over the last five years. 

The Calderys of 2017 is truly a global business with recent investments in Indonesia, Japan, India, Germany, Finland, the UK, and the United States.

It is time for me to move on and I want to say thank you to all the Calderys teams globally and to wish my successor, Michel Cornilison, and the Calderys management team continued success in the tough world of refractories!"