People

Tanzania: Elsawy Ahmed has resigned as the manager of Twiga Cement’s Wazo Hill plant. He had been in post at the subsidiary of Heidelberg Materials since 2017. He is now working as a technical consultant.

Elsawy started his career as a Quality Control Supervisor for Assiut Cement in Egypt. He later worked for Cemex Egypt and became a plant manager for Cemex in Bangladesh in the early 2000s. He joined Italcementi in 2006 becoming Maintenance & Project Manager for subsidiary Suez Cement in the mid-2010s. Elsawy holds a degree in chemistry from Assiut University.

Spain: Cemex has appointed Oliver Chaddock as Trading Head for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. He has worked for Cemex in trading roles since the late 2000s, becoming a planning analyst in 2008 and moving on to director-level trading roles from 2011. His last position was as Trading Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Chaddock holds an executive master of business administration (MBA) qualification from the IE Business School in Madrid.

Nigeria: Aliko Dangote has retired as the chair of Dangote Cement. He has been succeeded by Emmanuel Ikazoboh in the post.

Arvind Pathak, the CEO of Dangote Cement, said “On behalf of the board and management, we celebrate our president, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, GCON, who now steps down from the board, for his pivotal and transformative role in shaping the company’s growth, success, and lasting legacy. His visionary leadership, entrepreneurial spirit and unwavering commitment laid the very foundation of our journey.”

Dangote founded parent company Dangote Industries in 1981 as an importer of bagged cement and other commodities such as rice, sugar, flour and salt. In the early 2000s the company purchased Benue Cement and Obajana Cement from the government when they were privatised. Dangote Cement then built a new cement production line at the Obajana plant in the late 2000s before building other plants in Nigeria and expanding internationally in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 2010s. Today, Dangote Cement is the biggest cement company in Africa with a self-declared capacity of 52Mt/yr, operations in 10 countries and annual revenues of US$2.3bn.

Ikazoboh holds over 40 years of experience in management roles in Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and South Africa. He started his professional career at Akintola Williams Deloitte becoming a managing partner in Cameroon and Ivory Coast and then later becoming a managing partner in West and Central Africa until 2009. In 2010 he was appointed by the Securities and Exchange as an Interim Administrator to carry out capital market reforms of the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the Central Securities Clearing System. From 2014 to 2000 he worked as the group chair of Ecobank Transnational. He has been a director of Dangote Cement since 2014. Ikazoboh holds a master’s of business administration (MBA) in financial management and marketing from Manchester University Business School, is a certified accountant in the UK and is a fellow of the Nigeria Institute of Chartered Accountants.

India: Pradeep Mehta has resigned as the chief financial officer (CFO) of Saurashtra Cement due to personal reasons. He previously worked as the CFO for Garware Hi-Tech Films and Arihant Superstructures from 2017 to 2024. Before this, he held managerial financial roles for companies including Essar Steel, Grassim Industry’s Birla White cement plant in Kharia Khangar, Jindal Steel and Power and Mabati Rolling Mills. He holds an undergraduate degree in mathematics from the University of Ajmer and is a registered chartered accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Türkiye: OYAK Group has appointed Murat Yalçıntaş as the General Manager of its Board of Directors. He succeeds Süleyman Savaş Erdem in the post.

Yalçıntaş has worked in a wide variety of business and academic posts. Notable positions include being a member of the board of trustees of Istanbul Commerce University and CEO of BMC Automotive from 2021 to 2024. He holds a PhD in business administration from Istanbul University.