Thomas Schmidheiny is the Chairman and Founder of Spectrum Value Management Ltd., his family office. After studying mechanical engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), he began his career as a Technical Director with Cementos Apasco in 1970. In 1973, he joined “Holderbank” Financière Glaris Ltd (which became Holcim), where he served as Managing Director and Chairman (1978-2001) and later, as Chairman of the Board (1984-2003). He served on the Holcim Board of Directors until 2018 and was appointed Honorary Chairman of the cement group after leaving the company. He remains a major shareholder of Holcim. 

Thomas Schmidheiny is also a director of various companies in Europe, North America and Asia as well as non-profit institutions. His particular interest is philanthropy: With his four children, he sits on the board of the Fourfold Foundation. In addition, he actively supports education, the arts and entrepreneurship through various philanthropic engagements. He received an honorary Doctorate of Business Administration from Tufts University and holds an MBA from IMD..