People

Spain: Sergio Martínez Hernández has been appointed as the new director of LafargeHolcim’s Carboneras cement plant in Almería. Martínez Hernández holds over 24 years of experience in the cement industry, according to Teleprensa. He joined Holcim in 1993 after training as an engineer at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales (ETSII) in Madrid. During his career he has worked at plants in Gádor in Almería, Yepes in Toledo and Portland in Colorado, USA.

India: Shri C Madhusudana Rao has resigned as a director and a committee member of Kakatiya Cement Sugar & Industries on personal grounds. His departure took effect on 24 July 2017.

South Africa: PPC has announced that its CEO Darryll Castle will be stepping down to pursue other interests. In a statement PPC said that Castle will remain ‘available’ to the group for six months to ensure a smooth handover. Johan Claassen, the current managing director of PPC, has been appointed as the interim CEO.

PPC reported a 93% fall in full-year earnings in June 2017 due to a liquidity crisis precipitated by the cut in its credit rating to junk status.

Meanwhile, the resignation of Tito Mboweni, one of PPC’s independent non-executive directors has fuelled speculation in the South African press about the ongoing merger discussions between PPC and Afrisam. Some believe that there may be ‘irreconcilable disagreement’ between Mboweni and the wider board about the strategic direction of PPC with respect to Afrisam.

Indonesia: Rizkan Chandra, the President Director of Semen Indonesia, has died at the age of 48 years. He was appointed to the post in May 2016 for the period 2016 – 2020, according to the Jakarta Globe newspaper. Rizkan, who graduated from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in 1987, was previously appointed as strategy and business development director at the cement producer. He was also a former network and information technology director at Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom).

Darmawan Junaidi will be the acting president director for Semen Indonesia. He has previously served as finance director for the company.

Jamaica: Colin Steele has been elected as a director of Caribbean Cement. However, the board of directors of the cement producer tried to block the appointment by changing the company’s articles of incorporation that required at least two Jamaican-based directors, according to the Jamaica Observer. The company had been without a second Jamaican-domiciled director since the resignation of its former chairman Chris Dehring in 2016. Minority shareholders of the company supported Steele’s appointment.

Steele started his career as a certified public accountant before moving into retail and housing development. He has served as a director of several government companies, including the Port Authority of Jamaica and the University Hospital of the West Indies and as chairman of the Economic Policy committee of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica.