US: Mike Ireland has announced his retirement as the president and CEO of the American Cement Association (ACA). He has been in post since 2017. The association has formed a search committee to find a replacement.

Key accomplishments during Ireland’s tenure include the association implementing its Shaped by Concrete campaign to raise awareness of cement and concrete’s benefits in everyday life, launching the Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality and rebranding the organisation from Portland Cement Association to the American Cement Association.

Ireland became the president and CEO of the ACA in 2017. Before this he worked for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) from 2015 to 2016 as its managing director and Associate Executive Director. He has also worked for the Association For Facilities Engineering, the National Environmental Balancing Bureau and the American Traffic Safety Services Association. He is a graduate in industrial education from Brigham Young University.

US: Amrize has appointed Andres Navarro Martinez as the plant manager of its Hagerstown cement plant in Maryland.

Navarro Martinez has worked as an Area Manager for Amrize since mid-2025. Before this he worked for Holcim since 2008. He started as a process engineer for Holcim Spain. Subsequently, he held process engineering roles for group subsidiaries in Nigeria, France and the US. He became Production Manager for Holcim in the US based at Alpena in 2017 and then an area manager in 2021. Navarro Martinez holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Murcia and an executive master’s of business administration qualification from the EAE Business School.

Saudi Arabia: Al Jouf Cement has appointed Bakr bin Atef Sindi as its CEO. He succeeds Samir bin Mohammed Al-Rahili in the role.

Sindi holds 25 years’ of professional experience and has held managing roles for industrial and banking companies. He holds an undergraduate degree in mining engineering from King Abdulaziz University.

Austria: Alpacem has appointed Philipp Habjanic as the plant manager of its Peggau plant. He will take responsibility for both Alpacem and InterCal operations at the site. He succeeds Florian Salzer in the role, who had been managing the site on an interim basis since late 2023.

Habjanic has worked for Alpacem since 2020. He started as Project Manager Mining and Processing and became the Head of Process Engineering and Project Planning in late 2023. He holds a master’s degree in mineral processing from the University of Leoben.

Both Alpacem and InterCal are subsidiaries of Wietersdorfer Group. Alpacem produces cement and concrete products. InterCal manufactures lime products. InterCal operates quarries and a lime plant at Peggau. In late 2025 Alpacem, InterCal, and Innofreight announced that they were building an intermodal terminal at the site.