His biggest job yet

John Crowe poses for a picture in Norton Hall, an imposing meeting room decorated with murals depicting industrial scenes and wedged into a brick building on the Saint-Gobain campus.

Painted across the wall above his head are the names of people who worked for the former Norton Co. for at least 25 years. So many people have logged long careers at the industrial company, which was acquired by France’s Compagnie de Saint-Gobain in 1990, that the painters long ago ran out of space. New names go into oversize books.

That’s where you’ll find the listing for Mr. Crowe, 57, hired in 1978 by Norton as a process engineer and now the new president and chief executive of Saint-Gobain’s North American business, Saint-Gobain Corp., and its building materials subsidiary, CertainTeed Corp.

He is the first American to run Saint-Gobain Corp., and it is his biggest job yet. Saint-Gobain runs more than 254 sites in North America with about 19,000 employees; 2010 sales were about $7.3 billion. CertainTeed employs more than 6,000 and posted $3 billion in sales in 2010.

“I’ve been drinking from a fire hose for the past 10 days,” Mr. Crowe said in an interview after assuming his new job.

An international producer of industrial materials, Saint-Gobain is known mostly for manufacturing building materials. The company also makes abrasives, ceramics and glass containers and jars for food and beverages. Saint-Gobain posted 2010 worldwide sales of about 40 billion euros, or about $55.5 billion at current conversion rates.

In Worcester, the company employs about 1,400 people in abrasives, ceramics and performance plastics.

About 400 work at the company’s research and development center in Northboro, Saint-Gobain’s largest research center worldwide. Other area sites include a Verallia glass plant in Milford.

Mr. Crowe became president of Saint-Gobain’s fluid systems division in 2002 and president of the bearing and seal technology division in 2003. He was named president of performance plastics in 2004 and president of abrasives in 2008.

Mr. Crowe takes over North American duties from Gilles Colas, who is returning to Saint-Gobain’s Paris headquarters as senior vice president of global strategic developments. He takes over CertainTeed from Peter Dachowski, who retired.

In a statement announcing Mr. Crowe’s appointment, Compagnie de Saint-Gobain Chairman and Chief Executive Pierre-Andre de Chalendar emphasized innovation.

“His appointment underscores Saint-Gobain’s focus on leveraging its innovation and technical expertise to develop products and solutions that change the way we think about built environments,” he said.

Mr. Crowe said he hopes to connect Saint-Gobain’s Northboro research to CertainTeed opportunities.

“I think part of my challenge going forward is taking that passion for innovation and keep pushing it into building materials,” he said.

Dennis J. Baker, retired senior vice president of human resources with Saint-Gobain in Worcester, sat on the executive committee that tapped Mr. Crowe to run the abrasives business worldwide and said a background in research and innovation is just one of the things that made Mr. Crowe an appealing executive.

“He’s got a very good business mind,” Mr. Baker said. “He’s got the kind of personality — it’s very easy to work with him. He’s very balanced. He’s not quick to make judgments. He assesses things.”

In addition to focusing on innovation in his new job, Mr. Crowe said he wants to grow Saint-Gobain’s business, either through acquisitions or investments, and make sure the company builds its work force regularly with new hires and develop the talent of workers. He also wants to raise the profile of Saint-Gobain.

“We’re not as well known as we should be, as I would like,” he said.

A native of Queens, N.Y., Mr. Crowe is the father of two grown children. His wife works part-time as a nurse for UMass Memorial Health Care. He intends to keep his home in Massachusetts, but get an apartment in Philadelphia so he can work out of Saint-Gobain’s U.S. headquarters in Valley Forge, Pa.

In addition to leading Saint-Gobain Corp., Mr. Crowe is also president of the Saint-Gobain Foundation, an entity that donates about $1 million in the Worcester area annually.

He recently participated in a Worcester YouthBuild community day project renovating a three-family home on Hollis Street that is owned by the Main South Community Development Corp., said Lin Ormondroyd, vice president of development and public relations for nonprofit Training Resources of America in Worcester, which runs the YouthBuild job training program. She called Mr. Crowe an “ardent supporter of Worcester YouthBuild.”

Richard B. Kennedy, president and chief executive of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, also said Mr. Crowe’s appointment is positive for Worcester, which is already the company’s abrasives business headquarters.

“John will work in Valley Forge, but he will live here,” Mr. Kennedy said. This “is nothing but a plus for this community and the company.”