People

China: Xiao Jiaxiang and Sui Yumin have resigned as vice-presidents from CNBM. Xiao Jiaxiang will continue to hold the post of executive director with the company. Both men also worked for subsidiary Xinjiang Tianshan Cement.

Chile: Andrés Pérez Algarra has been appointed as the general manager of Cemento Polpaico. He succeeds Javier Moreno Hueyo who has been in the post for five years, according to the Valor newspaper. Andrés Pérez Algarra, who is currently working as the commercial manager for the company, will take up his new position in April 2022.

US: Solidia Technologies has appointed Padmaja Parakala as its director of research and development.

She holds 20 years of experience working in corporate material science, most recently working for Innovantage, a professional services firm she founded that has worked with Solidia Technologies and the Boral Innovation Factory. Prior to this she worked as the principal scientist and product performance leader at James Hardie Building Products in Australia. Earlier in her career she also worked for GE at the John F Welch Technology Center.

Parakala holds s PhD in material engineering from the Queensland University of Technology and master’s degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur and the Indian Institute of Technology in Varanasi.

Switzerland: Holcim has appointed Toufic Tabbara as Region Head North America and a member of the group executive committee. He succeeds René Thibault, who has decided to leave the company.

Tabbara was most recently working as the chief executive officer for US Cement. He joined the group in 1998 as Director Strategy & Development in the US and has led Holcim’s ready-mix concrete, aggregates and cement businesses in the US, Canada, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Algeria.

He holds a Master of Business Administration from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona, US and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos has appointed Bianca Nasser as its chief financial officer (CFO) and investor relations director. She succeeds Osvaldo Ayres Filho, who will remain in the company as the Director of Cement, Logistics and Adjacent Business Operations.

Nasser worked for Petrobras from 2002 to 2019, eventually becoming the Executive Manager of Corporate Finance and Treasury. She subsequently became the CFO and investor relations officer at BNDES. She is a graduate in economics from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and holds a master’s degree in administration and finance from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.