People

France: Lafarge France has appointed Alexandre Duca as its chief financial officer. He will report to Xavier Guesnu, the CEO of the subsidiary of Holcim.

Duca has worked for Lafarge since 2000 when he started working as a management assistant at the Cruas lime plant. He later joined the financial control team for Lafarge in 2008 before working in Russia in 2011 as Director of Management Control. Following the merger with Holcim in 2015, he was appointed as Regional Financial Controller for Asia in 2016 and then for Europe in 2019. He then became the CFO of Lafarge Cement and Geocycle France in 2021. Duca is a graduate from the University of Paris-Dauphine.

Bangladesh: Heidelberg Materials Bangladesh has appointed Saikat Khan as its secretary with effect from 1 November 2024. Khan also serves as the director of the company's legal division, according to the New Nation newspaper. He succeeds Emdadul Haque in the post, who has resigned.

Other recent personnel changes include the appointment of Terence Ong Kian Hock as managing director. He assumed the role from 1 September 2024 and succeeded Jose Marcelino Ugarte. Emdadul Haque has also been appointed as chief financial officer from 1 January 2025. He will follow Jashim Uddin Chowdhury in the role.

Pakistan: Lucky Cement has announced its reappointment of Muhammad Sohail Tabba to the role of chair of its board. The appointment will be effective through to 2027. Tabba has served in the role since 1993. He currently holds other executive positions in the textiles and energy sectors, at Gadoon Textile Mills, Lucky Textile Mills and Yunus Energy.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Ali Tabba will also continue to occupy the position of CEO through to 2027. He was first appointed to the role in 2005.

Saudi Arabia: Al Jouf Cement Company’s board of directors has accepted the resignation of Suleiman Abdulaziz Al-Zaben as chair of its audit committee. Al-Zaben had been serving as committee member from outside the board.

In July 2024, Al Jouf Cement Company took legal action against unnamed former board members, following an investigation into possible ‘administrative irregularities’ by an independent auditor launched in December 2023.

Austria: Haimo Primas has been appointed as the CEO of Holcim Austria. He succeeds Berthold Kren in the role.

Primas, aged 53 years, has worked for Holcim for over 20 years. He started working for Lafarge Zementwerke in the early 2000s and has worked for related companies, including Holcim CE Holding and Lafarge Slovenia. His responsibilities have included senior positions at cluster and national level in finance, business development, supply chain and human resources. Amongst other roles, he was the plant manager of the Retznei cement plant from 2022 to October 2024. Primas studied business administration at the Karl-Franzens-University Graz.