China: Huaxin Cement has proposed Ron Wirahadiraksa and Daniel Bach as candidates for its board of directors. The proposals will be submitted to the shareholders general meeting for approval.

Ron Wirahadiraksa, a Dutch national born in 1960, has been the chief financial officers of LafargeHolcim since 1 December 2015. He graduated with a Doctoral in Business Economics from the Free University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He also graduated as a Certified Registered Controller from the Free University of Amsterdam. Wirahadiraksa joined the Philips group in 1987. He became Chief Financial Officer at LG Philips LCD in South Korea in 1999, during which time he shared operating leadership with the Korean CEO. He became Chief Financial Officer at Philips Healthcare in 2008 and in 2011 he took over as CFO for the Philips Group.

Daniel Bach, a Swiss national born in 1963, has been the Area Manager South East Asia and China (Huaxin) for LafargeHolcim since July 2016. He joined Holcim as project engineer and manager in 1994. In 1998, he moved to Corporate Business Risk Management and in 2002 was made Technical Director for Holcim Indonesia. From 2004 – 2007, Bach acted as assistant to a member of the Holcim Executive Committee before being appointed Senior VP Manufacturing for Holcim Philippines. He became the Area Manager for South East Asia in 2011. He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich.

Huaxin Cement is an association company of LafargeHolcim. As of 31 December 2015, the group held 41.8 % of the voting rights in the associate company.

Ireland: Mark Towe has confirmed his intention to retire from the CRH Board at the end of 2016. Towe, who joined CRH in 1997 and was appointed a CRH Director in July 2008, will continue in his role as Chairman, CRH Americas.

Russia: Karel Okleshtek has been appointed the new general director of the Mordovcement plant (included in Eurocement Group). Previously, he headed a plant of the international group HeidelbergCement.

UK: Hanson Cement has appointed Mark Hickingbottom as its national commercial director for bulk cement and Andy Simpson as its national commercial director – packed. The appointments follow the recent retirement of commercial director Keith Ellis.

Hickingbottom has sales and marketing experience within Hanson’s bulk cement team, as well as a degree in Business Management. He is an associate member of The Institute of Concrete Technology and has spent over 12 years at Hanson delivering strategic plans across its product range.

Simpson, previously responsible for sales of all Hanson’s packed products, will build on developing trading relations with merchant customers as well as working with internal teams. He has over 15 years’ experience with Hanson and holds a degree in Business Studies.