People

Saudi Arabia: Southern Province Cement has appointed Saud bin Safar Al-Bargan as its CEO.

Al-Bargan holds over 25 years of professional experience with 15 years in the cement and building materials sector. He joined Southern Province Cement in 2011. Notable roles he has held at the company include Director of Marketing and Sales, Director of Planning and Business Development, Director of Engineering Services, Director of Supply Chain Management, Executive Vice President of Operations and Operations, and secretary of the board of directors. He is a graduate in applied mechanical engineering from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals.

UK: Holcim UK has appointed Jan-Willem Verkaik as the Project Director for its carbon capture project at its cement plant at Cauldon in Staffordshire.

Verkaik holds over 30 years’ project management experience, having overseen the planning and execution of gas developments in countries including Brunei, Iraq, Norway, Russia and the UAE. Much of his career has been spent working for Shell and related companies. He worked for Brunei Shell Petroleum on offshore projects from 2007 to 2013. He later held positions with Shell and joint-venture Basrah Gas Company. He is a graduate in mechanical engineering from the University of Twente in the Netherlands.

Canada: Progressive Planet has appointed Doug Brown as president and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at its subsidiary Progressive Planet Alberta. He has been on the advisory board of Progressive Planet since 2020. With this full-time role, he will be responsible for opening and operating the company’s new C-Quester Cement Lab in Calgary. He will also oversee all research and development activities for the Progressive Planet group of companies.

Brown holds a PhD in materials chemistry from the University of Calgary. He started his career as a research scientist at the University of Calgary working on direct air capture (DAC) where he was part of Carbon Engineering Group. Later, he was part of the founding team of ZS2 Technologies, where he led the development of various magnesium-based cement products as its CTO.

Pakistan: Flying Cement says that its CEO Agha Humayun Khan died on 22 September 2025. Khan had been in post since 2006. It described him as a “distinguished leader” and said that “his contribution to Flying Cement Company was significant.” He was reappointed as CEO for three months in May 2025. The cement company has started proceedings to appoint his successor.

US: Peru-based UNACEM has appointed Rafael Villalona as the CEO of its operations in North America.

Previously, Villalona was the CEO of Cemex in the UAE from 2020. He worked for the cement producer in various roles from 2007 starting in the Dominican Republic. He became the Country Manager for Jamaica in 2011, Haiti in 2015 and the group’s Vice President Commercial & Logistics based in Egypt in 2019. He was also the chair of the Mexican Business Council in the UAE in 2024 and 2025. Villalona holds an undergraduate degree in civil engineering from the Ohio State University and a master’s degree in engineering from the University of Maryland.