People

Switzerland: The board of directors of LafargeHolcim will request its shareholders to approve the appointment of Philippe Block and Kim Fausing as new members at its annual general meeting (AGM), due to be held on 12 May 2020. The appointments are intended to add perspectives from academia and the building industry to the board.

Block, a Belgian national born in 1980, is a Professor of Architecture and Structure at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland. He is the founder and co-director of the Block Research Group at ETH where his research focuses on the analysis of unreinforced masonry structures, structural design, computational form finding and new construction techniques. Since 2014 he has served on the Academic Committee of the LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction.

Fausing, a Danish national born in 1964, began his professional career with the Hilti Group in Denmark 1990. He went on to run its operations then took over country operations in Austria and Japan before becoming Division President at its headquarters in Liechtenstein. In 2007 Fausing moved to the Danish Danfoss Group to assume the role of chief operating officer. In January 2008 he became a member of its executive committee, which he has chaired since July 2017 as president and chief executive officer (CEO).

Except for Paul Desmarais, Jr, all other existing members of the Board will stand for re-election, with Beat Hess remaining as chairman. Hess said, “on behalf of the entire Board of Directors I would like to thank Paul Desmarais, Jr, for his generous contributions over the past years. He will be missed. At the same time I am glad we can propose these two outstanding candidates. I’m confident they would strengthen our board’s expertise by adding vast experience from multinational corporations as well as the perspective of a renowned academic who has focused on creating sustainable solutions.”

Italy/The Netherlands: Cementir Holding has appointed the board of directors for the period 2020 - 2022 made up of nine members: Francesco Caltagirone as executive director, with Azzurra Caltagirone, Alessandro Caltagirone, Edoardo Caltagirone, Saverio Caltagirone, Fabio Corsico, Paolo Di Benedetto, Veronica De Romanis and Chiara Mancini, all acting as non-executive directors.

As the holding company is based in the Netherlands, directors Paolo Di Benedetto, Veronica De Romanis and Chiara Mancini have declared that they meet the independence requirements pursuant to the Dutch Self-Discipline Code. The meeting also appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers Accountants NV as auditor for the years 2021 - 2030. Cementir Holding reported a net profit attributable to shareholders of Euro83.7m for 2019.

Mexico: Elementia has announced the death of its board member Jaime Ruiz Sacristán who died on 12 April 2020. The company said that Sacristán worked with ‘tireless dedication’ at the company for 20 years to ‘build Elementia, contributing knowledge, talent and direction.’

During a distinguished career, Sacristán held positions such as president of the board of directors of the Mexican Stock Exchange, president, partner and founder of Grupo Financiero Ve por Más and president of the Mexican Association of Bankers. He was also a member of the board of directors of numerous companies in the financial, industrial and commercial sectors.

Francisco del Valle Perochena, chairman of the board at Elementia said, “I am very sad to report the death of a great man and friend. He will always be present in our lives and in our hearts. He leaves us an invaluable legacy as a professional and as a great human being. His temperance, wisdom, good sense and prudence are just some of the great qualities that we admired and respected in him.”

Japan: Ube Machinery has made changes to its management team with effect from 1 April 2020. Hiroaki Furuya has been appointed as Managing Executive Officer. His previous role as Director & Executive Officer has been filled by Michiharu Takeda. Ube Machinery manufactures a range of products for the cement industry, including mills, kilns and dryers. Its parent company Ube also produces cement from its own plants.

Pakistan: Lucky Cement has appointed Masood Karim Shaikh as an independent director following the resignation of Mohammad Javed Iqbal at the end of March 2020. Shaikh also takes Iqbal’s position as chairman of the company’s Resource and Remuneration Committee. He will remain in post as a director for the remaining term of the board.