Fortera Appoints Eric Olsen and Jim Messina to Board of Directors

CAMPBELL, Calif., July 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Fortera is excited to announce the appointment of Eric Olsen, a former cement industry executive, and Jim Messina, a political strategist, to Fortera's Board of Directors.

Fortera is a Silicon Valley-based Materials Technology Company that has developed a new cementitious material that provides significant economic savings compared to Portland cement, while reducing CO₂ emissions by greater than 60%.

"Our Board of Directors is built around industry experts that represent the entire value chain with scale-up and commercialization in mind." Said Dr. Gilliam, CEO and Co-Founder of Fortera. "Eric Olsen brings over 20 years of cement industry executive experience from one of the largest building material companies in the world, LafargeHolcim. Jim Messina, offers an orthogonal skillset as a political strategist that has built a career around navigating the complex political landscape on a global level. Adding new domain expertise to our Board to advise on cement production, and how to do business with one of the largest consumers of cement, government entities, ensures all stakeholders are considered when making strategic decisions."

Eric Olsen, former CEO of LafargeHolcim, has served multiple executive roles and functions within the cement industry. He started his career in the field of mergers and acquisitions at Deloitte & Touche, Banque Paribas and was one of the managing partners of Trinity Associates for 6 years. He studied business at the University of Colorado and holds an MBA from HEC international business school in Paris. He joined the Lafarge Group in 1999 and was a member of its Executive Committee from 2007 until its merger with Holcim in July 2015 to form LafargeHolcim. He served as CEO of LafargeHolcim until April 2017 and was credited with successfully implementing the merger of Lafarge and Holcim.

Jim Messina is the CEO of The Messina Group, one of the world's most trusted strategic consulting firms, winning public policy fights, elections, and corporate victories across six continents and in a wide range of industries. Named "The Obama White House's Fixer" by the media, Messina served as the White House Deputy Chief of Staff and the campaign manager for President Obama's historic 2012 reelection campaign. He also served as Chief of Staff to several prominent members of Congress, including Sen. Max Baucus. Jim serves on the boards of Vectra.ai, LanzaTech, Blockchain.com, the United States Soccer Foundation, and the Montana Land Reliance. 

About Fortera:
Fortera is a Silicon Valley-based Materials Technology Company founded in May 2019 that has created a process that economically converts CO₂ into a cement. The product is ready for use anywhere Ordinary Portland Cement is used, reducing CO₂ emissions by 60% for every ton consumed.

Fortera is in the process of building its first commercial plant in Redding, CA where it will manufacture a low CO₂ supplementary cementitious material, available for sale Q2 2022. For more information on Fortera, please visit www.ForteraUSA.com.

Contact: Fortera Corporation, [email protected]       

SOURCE Fortera Corporation