TITAN's fourth-gen CEO handed it to a non-family CEO to break out of carbon

TITAN is a century-old Greek cement maker run by the fourth-generation family leader Dimitri Papalexopoulos, who was CEO from 1996 to 2022 and now chairs the board. Over 25 years he turned a domestic business into a multinational player operating in more than 25 countries across four continents.

As the company prepared for its next phase, Papalexopoulos faced a hard decision: keep leading, promote a trusted insider, or become the first leader in its history to recommend a non-family CEO. He concluded the firm needed a fresh push on decommoditization, decarbonization and digitalization, so the board hired Marcel Cobuz, an ex-LafargeHolcim executive, as TITAN's first outside CEO.

Cobuz built a four-pillar roadmap — sharpen the core cement portfolio, accelerate low-carbon products and aggregates, build a tech-driven innovation engine, and empower country units while tightening accountability. Two years on TITAN posted record revenue and profitability, green products reached 30% of output, and TITAN America's minority stake listed on the NYSE.

TITAN operates in 25+ countries; record revenue and profit, green products at 30% of output, and a minority stake of TITAN America listed on the NYSE.

The family chose an outsider because decommoditization, decarbonization and digitalization demanded a new kind of leader.

Papalexopoulos had already globalized the firm, so the next lever was outside the family's comfort zone.

Cobuz brought 25 years of industry experience, including leading Holcim's European business.

Family ownership enabled long-horizon capital allocation that a quarterly-driven public firm could not match.

The hardest succession is deciding a family firm needs an outsider — and a family that trusts that choice can unlock scale.

TITAN achieved its 2026 strategic targets a year ahead of schedule under Cobuz, but the stretch agenda strained the organization — a HBS case questions whether it was visionary or too much, too fast. The family kept control while the company continued to list parts of its business publicly.