Columbia: Columbia's largest cement company, Cementos Argos (Cemargos), has named Jorge Mario Velásquez as its chairman.
A civil engineer with over 30 years' experience in cement, Velásquez replaces José Alberto Vélez, who remains at the head of parent company Grupo Argos. The changes are part of the company's ongoing corporate restructuring process, which includes splitting off non-cement assets to its investment arm, Inversiones Argos.
India: Madras Cements has promoted its executive director for finance, A V Dharmakrishnan, to chief executive officer.
"A V Dharmakrishnan has been designated as chief executive officer of the company with effect from 1 April 2012," the Chennai-based cement maker said in a BSE filing.
Dharmakrishnan is a chartered accountant who began his career with Madras Cements in 1982. He has been an additional director at Rajapalayam Mills and Ramco Systems since 2008 and serves as a director On-Time Transport Company Limited. In addition he is a member of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.
Madras Cements is the flagship company of the diversified Ramco Group and it produces 13Mt/yr at its five manufacturing plants across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Apart from cement, Ramco Group has presence in real estate, paper production, hardware and stainless steel.
Thierry Legrand: Lafarge has appointed a new country CEO for its South African operations. Thierry Legrand was formerly the General Manager of Lafarge in South Africa but has changed role in line with the French building material giant's worldwide restructuring programme.
"Implementing this new structure will allow us to focus more efficiently on our customers and get closer to our markets," said Legrand. "We will use the strengths of our different product lines to design solutions in line with our customers' needs."
Legrand has managed several senior portfolios within the Lafarge group, both in South Africa and Europe.
US: Henrik Wesseling, the plant manager at the Lehigh Cement Permanente Plant in Cupertino, California, is returning to Germany. Lehigh Cement announced that Wesseling will be leading the global fuel optimisation strategy for its parent company HeidelbergCement. His last day at the Lehigh facility will be on 26 April 2012.
Wesseling took on the plant manager role at Permanente in 2008. In his time there, he worked toward helping the company install emission-reducing technology to meet new environmental regulations. Over the past two years, he led an initiative to install an activated carbon injection system that aims to reduce mercury emissions by more than 90%.
"Henrik has performed admirably as plant manager and I commend him for all he has achieved," Kari Saragusa, Lehigh Western Regional President, said in a statement. Axel Conrads, Lehigh's region west vice president of cement operations, will lead plant operations on an interim basis while a new plant manager is sought. A new plant manager is expected to be in place within the coming months.
