People

Saudi Arabia: Southern Province Cement has appointed Aqeel Futis Kadasa as its chief executive officer (CEO) following the resignation of Safar Mohammad Dhufayer. Kadasa holds a degree in chemical engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals and has over 25 years of working experience. He started his work at Yamama Cement, then worked in the Saudi Electricity Company in the Department of Engineering Services and later joined Southern Province Cement in 1997.

Saudi Arabia: Yanbu Cement has appointed Fahd Bin Soliman Al Rajhi as its chairman. Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Khuraiji was appointed vice-president of the board of directors and Sharif Bin Abdul Karim Al-Itani was appointed as the secretary.

US: Rockwell Automation has appointed Patricia Contreras as Vice President of Global Public Affairs. In this new role, she will oversee the company’s national and state government affairs activities, external communications, media relations, corporate responsibility and environmental, social and governance reporting functions as well as the community relations and contributions group. Most recently, Contreras served as Director of Global Community Relations and Contributions. She has worked for the company for 10 years and holds a degree in finance from the Lubar School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

India: Sunny Gaur has resigned as the managing director of Jaiprakash Associates due to personal reasons. The conglomerate operates its cement plants in a cluster around Satna in Madhya Pradesh. In 2017 it sold six integrated cement plants and five grinding plants to UltraTech Cement for US$2.5bn in order to reduce its debts.

China: Dongwu Cement has appointed Liu Dong as chairman and Wu Junxian as chief executive officer (CEO) following the resignations of Xie Yingxia and Jin Chungen for personal and retirement reasons respectively.

Liu, aged 51 years, has been an executive director of Dongwu Cement since mid-2019. Since leaving university he worked as a diplomat for the Chinese government and the United Nations. From 2005 he has held a number of senior positions at companies including Orient Holdings Group, Huilitong Industry, Sunshine Oilsands, Orient International Resources Group, Global Mining and Sino-Sindh Resources. He holds over ten years’ experience in capital market and investor relationship sectors in Hong Kong and has a Master of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge.

Wu, aged 39 years, is an executive director of Dongwu Cement and the general manager of Suzhou Dongwu Cement. He joined the group in 2009, and has held various positions in Suzhou Dongwu such as assistant to general manager and deputy general manager. He became general manager of Suzhou Dongwu in 2013. Previously, Wu worked for Orient Holdings and Shanghai Keli Communications Technology. He holds a bachelor degree in management administration from Nanjing Audit University.