People

Nigeria: Dangote Cement has appointed Gbenga Fapohunda as its Group Financial Officer.

Fapohunda holds over 22 years of experience in financial management. He has worked for Dangote Cement since 2021 first as Regional Chief Financial Officer and then as the Acting Group Financial Officer from 2022. Before this he was the Executive Finance Director (West Africa) at Japan Tobacco International, Finance Director at United Parcel Service (UPS), Executive Finance Director at British American Tobacco. Earlier in his career, he was a manager within the financial advisory team at PricewaterhouseCoopers and worked at KPMG Professional Services within the Assurance Team. He holds a Doctor of Business Administration (Strategic Management) from the Rome Business School, a master’s of business administration (MBA) in finance from the London Business School and an undergraduate degree in accounting from the University of Lagos. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria.

UK: Mark Grimshaw-Smith has been appointed as a non-executive director to its Board of Logistics UK. He currently works as the Rail and Sea Manager for Cemex UK. Other appointments to this board include Jamie Hartles, Rem Noormohamed and James Wroath.

Grimshaw-Smith has worked for over 40 years in the construction materials supply chain and logistics sector, covering all modes of transport. He has worked for Cemex for over 15 years, most recently as its Rail and Sea Manager. He helped to develop Cemex's global rail safety standards, representing Cemex’s Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. He is a graduate in economics from the University of Oxford and holds a master’s of business administration (MBA) from the University of Warwick.

Logistics UK is a trade association representing the logistics sector, including road, rail, sea, and air.

Oman: Raysut Cement has appointed Jamal Shamis Saud Al Hooti as its chair. Khalid Masoud Ansari has been appointed as the vice chair and Liyutha Mohamed Sulaiman Al Ismaili has been appointed as the secretary of the board.

Finland: Tana Oy has appointed Jari Mennala as its CEO with effect from 5 May 2025. He succeeds Kalle Saarimaa who became the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of NG Group in February 2025.

Mennala was appointed as the Director of Worldwide Forestry Sales & Marketing and Managing Director of John Deere Forestry Oy in 2024. He has worked for John Deere since 2008 for its forestry division in Finland, the US and the UK. He holds a master’s degree in industrial management from Tampere University of Technology and an executive master’s of business administration from Aalto University in Helsinki.

Austria: Alpacem Group has appointed Roland Waldenhofer as Head of Development, Quality Assurance and Application Technology of Alpacem Zement Austria. He succeeds Christoph Stotter in the post, who has been working for the group as Quality and Product Innovation Manager since 2024.

Waldenhofer, aged 30 years, trained as a civil engineer at Graz University of Technology. He previously worked for Rohrdorfer as Head of the Sand & Gravel Laboratory and
Head of the Central Laboratory & Technology Projects.