US: Henrik Wesseling, the plant manager at the Lehigh Cement Permanente Plant in Cupertino, California, is returning to Germany. Lehigh Cement announced that Wesseling will be leading the global fuel optimisation strategy for its parent company HeidelbergCement. His last day at the Lehigh facility will be on 26 April 2012.
Wesseling took on the plant manager role at Permanente in 2008. In his time there, he worked toward helping the company install emission-reducing technology to meet new environmental regulations. Over the past two years, he led an initiative to install an activated carbon injection system that aims to reduce mercury emissions by more than 90%.
"Henrik has performed admirably as plant manager and I commend him for all he has achieved," Kari Saragusa, Lehigh Western Regional President, said in a statement. Axel Conrads, Lehigh's region west vice president of cement operations, will lead plant operations on an interim basis while a new plant manager is sought. A new plant manager is expected to be in place within the coming months.