US: The board of directors of Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua (GCC) has announced that Enrique Escalante will become the CEO of its American division effective from 1 January 2015. The current CEO, Manual Milan, has announced that he will retire at the end of 2014.

"It's a privilege to be selected to lead GCC and I look forward to continuing to grow the organisation," said Escalante. "We remain committed to delivering high value and meeting our customers' needs through leading-edge technology."

Escalante has served as president of GCC of America since 2000. He joined the company in 1999 as president of its Mexican division. Prior to joining GCC, Escalante had more than 20 years experience in management and sales positions in heavy industry and construction materials.

With this change, Ron Henley, vice president of ready-mix and aggregates for GCC of America, will succeed Escalante as president of the company's US division. Henley started with GCC of America in 2012 as vice president of its logistics / supply chain department. In 2013, he assumed his current role. Prior to coming to GCC, Henley was president of Boral Construction Materials.

Under Milan's leadership GCC grew from six to 116 ready-mix concrete plants and from two to six cement plants, achieved an important expansion into the US market and developed a solid distribution network that transformed it into a major supplier in the cement and ready-mix markets it serves. After the 2008 completion of the new plant in Pueblo, Colorado, GCC has now reached an installed a cement capacity of 4.4Mt/yr of cement: 2.4Mt/yr output from the three plants in the US and 2Mt/yr from three plants in Mexico.