ABB Appoint New Head of HR
Jean-Christophe Deslarzes has been appointed by ABB to its Executive Committee as Head of Human Resources as of Nov. 15, 2013. He succeeds Gary Steel, 60, who will retire at a date that is still to be determined.
Deslarzes, a 49-year-old Swiss national, has served for the past three years as Chief Human Resources and Organization Officer and member of the Executive Board at the global retail group Carrefour. From 1994 to 2010, he worked at Rio Tinto Alcan and its predecessors Alcan Inc. and Alusuisse, in a variety of human resources and management roles in Europe and Canada.
“Jean-Christophe Deslarzes brings extensive knowledge in human resources, as well as experience managing an industrial business and integrating a large acquisition,” said Ulrich Spiesshofer, ABB’s CEO-designate. “His know-how will help ABB to take human resources to the next stage of excellence in the context of our global business strategy and to create value through our many integration efforts.”
Deslarzes holds a master’s degree in law from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and began his career in 1991 as a tax and legal consultant at Arthur Andersen in Geneva.
He succeeds Gary Steel, who has been Head of Human Resources and a member of the Executive Committee at ABB since January 2003. Steel established a performance-focused global human resources organization that puts a culture of accountability, people development and professional processes at its core.
