John Crowe Appointed President & CEO of Saint-Gobain and CertainTeed

Saint-Gobain, the world’s largest building materials company, has announced the appointment of John Crowe as president and CEO of both Saint-Gobain Corp. (Saint-Gobain’s North American holding company) and CertainTeed Corp. (Saint-Gobain’s largest North American subsidiary).

Crowe takes on these two roles effective Sept. 1. As president and CEO of Saint-Gobain Corp., Crowe will act as Saint-Gobain’s representative in North America

, overseeing the company’s North American businesses and chairing the company’s Executive Committee. In this role, he succeeds Gilles Colas, who will return to Saint-Gobain’s Paris headquarters as senior vice president in charge of global strategic developments.

In addition, Crowe will assume operational responsibility for CertainTeed, following in the footsteps of Peter Dachowski, who will retire as president and CEO on Aug. 31 after 35 years of service in a wide variety of senior leadership roles at Saint-Gobain and CertainTeed.

Crowe sees his main role as continuing to drive innovation throughout the company. “CertainTeed has been a leader in the construction industry for over one hundred years – Saint-Gobain for over three centuries – but we have never seen such a rapid pace of change, or so many exciting new building technologies,” said Crowe.

Crowe most recently served as president of Saint-Gobain’s global abrasives business, with responsibility for more than 13,000 employees and 75 manufacturing facilities in 24 countries. For 30 years, he has served in a wide range of leadership positions within Saint-Gobain group, including president of the Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics and Saint-Gobain Crystals businesses.