People

China: Anhui Conch has appointed Li Qunfeng as its general manager. He succeeds Wu Bin who has resigned from the post but who intends to remain working as the company’s executive director. Li Qunfeng is a trained engineer who has worked for the company since 1994. Notably, he first worked for subsidiary Anhui Tongling Conch Cement in a number of production roles before attaining more senior postings within the group.

Nigeria: Dangote Cement has appointed Philip Mathew as its deputy group managing director and chief executive officer with effect from 15 September 2021.

Following his training at the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, Matthew has worked for cement companies since the mid-1980s when he started out as a process engineer for ACC. He later worked for Lafarge in a number of roles and countries, eventually becoming its Director - Performance and Progress for Asia based in Kuala Lumpur in the early 2010s. He held the post of Chief Manufacturing Officer for ACC in India from 2016 to 2019 before becoming LafargeHolcim’s Head of Cement Excellence Manufacturing for the Asia-Pacific region subsequently.

Zimbabwe: Precious Murena has stepped down as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe to “pursue new interests outside the Holcim Group.” She was originally appointed to the role in early 2020. Amr Elmowafy Aly Mowafy, currently the chief financial officer, will assume the position of Acting CEO in the interim period until a replacement is found.

Murena joined Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe in 2011 and worked in various roles including the Industrial Relations & Welfare Manager and Human Resources & Communications Director. She was the first female Zimbabwean to become a CEO of the company.

Ireland: Ecocem Group has appointed Pat Cox as its chair. Cox is a former journalist and television current affairs reporter who later entered politics and became President and Member of the European Parliament (MEP). He is also a former member of the Irish parliament. His sustainability roles include chair of the Finance Green Ireland Committee, chair of the Gore Street Energy Storage Fund, the first ever listed fund for grid scale battery storage by the London Stock Exchange, and chair of the inaugural Dublin Climate Dialogues. He is also a board member of Supernode, an Irish renewables technology start-up and Gresham House Ireland.

India: Grasim Industries has appointed Hari Krishna Agarwal as its managing director. He will take up the post for a period of two years from 1 December 2021. The appointment is subject to shareholder approval. It follows the early retirement of Dilip Gaur from the subsidiary of Aditya Birla Group.

Agarwal, aged 62 years, has worked for Aditya Birla Group for nearly 40 years. During this period, he has held different roles in cement, chemicals and pulp and fibre businesses before taking on his current role as Business Head for Pulp & Fibre. He is a chartered accountant and an Executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Sasin School of Management at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand.