Displaying items by tag: Appointment

South Africa: PPC has appointed the former Holcim Philippines chief operating officer and Eastern Europe regional CEO Roland Van Wijnen to the position of CEO. Van Wijnen, who holds a master’s degree from the University of Twente, will take over control of the company’s 6.2Mt/yr total integrated capacity across South Africa and Zimbabwe from Johannes Theodorus Claassen on 1 October 2019.

Switzerland: LafargeHolcim’s executive committee has taken on Magali Anderson in the newly-created role of Chief Sustainability Officer. Anderson is a mechanical engineer with extensive managerial and functional experience who joined LafargeHolcim in 2016 as its Head of Health and Safety. LafargeHolcim CEO Jan Jensich has stated that the appointment “will accelerate LafargeHolcim’s vision of running its operations with zero harm to people and the environment.”

Paraguay: Industria Nacional del Cemento (INC) has appointed Ernesto Julián Benítez Petters as president. In his inauguration speech, he expressed his intention to continue the work of his predecessor for the company as a pillar of the Paraguayan economy.

Thailand: Siam City cement has appointed Benjamin Birks to its board of directors. The appointment will take effect on 1 October 2019. Birks will also assume membership of the company’s Nomination and Compensation Committee (NCC).

Germany: Siemens has selected Roland Busch as its new CEO amidst a raft of appointments to senior positions aimed to ‘set a new direction’ for the company. Busch’s appointment emphasises “the importance of the industrial digitalisation of the company for the next generation,” said Supervisory Board Chairman Jim Hagemann Snabe.

India: Rajasthan-based Wonder Cement has announced that Sanjay Joshi will become its executive director. Joshi brings 17 years of marketing and operations experience to the RK Group subsidiary, whose integrated cement production capacity is 6.8Mt/yr.

Belarus: President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has demanded that the local cement industry improve its efficiency and increase its exports. He made the comments following the approval of the appointment of Alyaksandr Dawhala as the new chief executive officer of Belarusian Cement, according to the Belapan news agency. He noted that export sales were improving with a focus on the European Union although key markets also include Poland, Latvia and Ukraine.

Zambia: The board chairman of Lafarge Zambia, a member of LafargeHolcim, has announced that Jimmy Khan has become the company’s new CEO, with immediate effect.
Khan holds a Bachelor of Science in Business with a major in Accounting and Information System from Virginia Tech University in the US. His 14-year career with Lafarge / LafargeHolcim has included appointments in Mauritius, Seychelles, Nigeria, France and North America.

Canada: Kate Strachan has become the new plant manager of the Lafarge Exshaw plant in Alberta, the largest in Canada. She took up the position in June 2018.

Born and raised in Warrington, UK, Strachan moved to Canada with her family when she was 10 years old, following her father’s job in marine engineering. She graduated from the University of Victoria with a mechanical engineering degree in 2000 before joining Lafarge Canada’s Richmond plant in the mechanical engineering department. Over the next 12 years she moved up through the mechanical department, eventually becoming the maintenance coordinator and then production coordinator at the plant.

After holding that position for several years she was promoted to production manager for Lafarge’s Sugar Creek plant in Missouri, US, but returned to Canada in less than a year to assist with the Exshaw plant’s US$600m expansion. “The commissioning of a new plant line is a once in a lifetime opportunity, so it was something I couldn’t really pass up,” said Strachan.

After spending nearly two years as the plant’s production manager, Strachan assumed her new role as plant manager in June 2018, taking over from Jim Bachmann, who was the plant manager since 2015.

China: Wu Xu has been appointed as the chairman of Taiyuan Lionhead Cement. The 54-year old Chinese national is a graduate from the Chongqing Construction Workers College, he holds a master's degree in business administration from Chongqing University and he has attended the China Europe International Business School. From 1982 to 1991 Xu was the chief engineer of Chongqing Building Management Station and was the executive vice general manager of China Chongqing International for Economy & Technology Cooperation in the early 1990s. In 1994 he founded Sincere Group and has since been its chairman and president.