People

Zimbabwe: Fossils Mines has appointed Innocent Zulu Chikwata as the acting chief executive officer (CEO) of Lafarge Zimbabwe. Willcort Dzuda has become the acting chief finance officer (CFO), according to the Business Times newspaper. The appointments follow the departure of Geoffrey Ndugwa and Amry El Moufay, as CEO and CFO respectively, following the acquisition of a majority stake in the cement producer by Fossils Mines in December 2022.

Chikwata worked previously as the sales manager and then the commercial director of Lafarge Zimbabwe since joining the company in 2017. He holds over 15 years of experience in the construction materials and consumer packaged goods sectors. Dzuda is a chartered accountant and registered public auditor. He holds 25 years of experience in auditing, consultancy and financial management.

India: ACC has appointed Ajay Kapur as its chief executive officer (CEO). He succeeds Sridhar Balakrishna in the post. Kapur is already the CEO of ACC’s parent company Ambuja Cement. His appointment as CEO and an independent director at ACC is intended to enable the two companies to work together better and improve synergies.

Ajay Kapur holds over 25 years of experience in the cement and construction, power and heavy metals sector. He joined Ambuja Cement in 1993 as an executive assistant to the then managing director (MD). He held various strategic positions over the past two decades, and from 2014 to 2019, he served as the CEO and managing director of the company. Prior to joining Adani Group in June 2022, Kapur was CEO - Aluminium and Power and MD - Commercial at Vedanta. Most recently he served as CEO of Special Projects at Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone. Kapur is an economics graduate from St Xavier's University in Mumbai and holds a Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) from the KJ Somaiya Institute of Management. He has also attended the Advanced Management Programme at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Türkiye: Akçansa has appointed Vecih Yılmaz as its general manager. The cement producer is a joint-venture between Sabancı Holding and Heidelberg Materials.

Yılmaz, started his career as an auditor at Deloitte in 2005 and later joined Sabancı Group in 2009. Between 2015 and 2017, he was the chief financial officer at Assan Panel and Financial Affairs Director at Kibar Holding. Both companies are part of Kibar Group. He rejoined Sabancı Group in 2017 as the finance director at Sabancı Holding and also served as a member of the board of directors at Kordsa and Yünsa. He has worked as the Deputy General Manager of Finance and Financial Affairs at Çimsa since 2019.

Yılmaz is a graduate from the Department of Business Administration at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. He completed the Political Science and Public Administration minor program at the same institution. He also holds a master's degree in financial economics from Galatasaray University in 2012.

China: Chen Xuanlin has resigned as the chief investment officer of Dongwu Cement. In a statement the company said that Chen wanted to, “to pursue his career development and concentrate on his own business engagement.”

Hungary: Duna-Dráva Cement (DCC) has appointed Zsolt Szilágyi as its president and chief executive officer with effect from January 2023. He succeeds János Szarkándi, who is set to retire.

Szilágyi currently works at the subsidiary of Heidelberg Materials as the Deputy General Manager of Construction Materials and Trade. He started his career at DDC in 1999 as a technical coordinator. Later, he worked as an investment project manager, then as a production manager and plant director of the Váci Cement Plant.