People

UK: Hanson Cement has appointed Andy Murphy as national commercial director. He reports directly to chief executive officer (CEO) Simon Willis and assumes commercial responsibility for the cement division as well as Hanson’s major projects and commercial excellence teams. Murphy holds experience in sales and marketing roles in the construction sector, including at Lafarge Tarmac, Jewson and building materials supplier SIG Distribution.

Philippines: Samuel O Manlosa has been appointed as the manager of Holcim Philippines’ Davao plant. He succeeded Xavier Arul Kennedy Savarimuthu in the post, who has been reassigned by the LafargeHolcim Group to lead plant operations in Nigeria.

Previously, Manlosa led a project to improve systems and processes to yield efficiency gains for Holcim Philippines' manufacturing operations. He has worked as a process and automation expert for LafargeHolcim's operations in Southeast Asia supporting plants in seven countries. Manlosa has also been sent to Holcim Switzerland for training on advanced process engineering and cement manufacturing. A native of Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte, he is a graduate from the Mindanao State University in Marawi City.

LafargeHolcim signed an agreement with San Miguel Corporation in mid-2019 for the divestment of its entire 85.7% shareholding in Holcim Philippines. The process is still ongoing.

Canada: Tina Larson has been appointed as Vice President, Saskatchewan and Manitoba by Lafarge Canada. She first joined Lafarge in 2010 as General Manager, Pipe in the Greater Calgary Area following a 16-year career with Weyerhaeuser Canada where she held various management positions. In 2015, Tina was promoted to the country level role of Director, Health and Safety for Western Canada. Larson holds an undergraduate and graduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alberta.

Germany: Ralf Dörner has retired as the managing director of Ventilatorenfabrik Oelde following a 50-year career with the company.

Following his apprenticeship as an industrial manager, Dörner took over a vacant position in the commercial administration division. Subsequently, he was given the job of assuring total data management integration within the company. In 1982 he was granted power of attorney and appointed commercial manager of the company. He became managing director in 2000.

Dörner handed over the Commercial Managing Director position to his successor, Nabil Abou Lebdi. The company will now be managed with Thomas Gandt, the Technical Managing Director.

Germany: Dominik von Achten is set to become the new chairman of HeidelbergCement from the start of February 2020. He has been deputy chairman of the managing board since 2015 and succeeds Bernd Scheifele, who is retiring.

Achten, aged 54 years, has been a member of the managing board of HeidelbergCement since 2007. His area of responsibility included the group areas of North America and Western and Southern Europe as well as the Competence Center Materials. He worked on the integration of both Hanson and Italcementi. As Chief Digital Officer, he is responsible for the areas of digital transformation and digital ventures.

After a statutory two-year cooling-off period has expired, Scheifele will stand as a candidate for the supervisory board of HeidelbergCement in 2022 to become its chairman.

Lorenz Näger, who has been the company’s chief financial officer since 2004, will additionally become the new deputy chairman of the Managing Board. He is responsible for Finance, Group Accounting, Controlling, Taxes, Treasury, Data Protection, Insurance & Corporate Risk Management, IT, Purchasing and Shared Service Center.

Achten will hand over responsibility for the Western and Southern Europe Group area to Jon Morrish, who was previously responsible for the North America Group area.

Chris Ward, who was previously head of the Canada region and has been a member of the managing board of HeidelbergCement AG since September 2019, takes over the North America Group area and the Competence Center Materials. He has been with the company since 1996 and held several management positions in the US before assuming responsibility for the Canada region of the North America Group area.