People

Sweden: SKF has appointed Kent Viitanen as its President of Bearing Operation. He was previously Senior Vice President, Group People, Communication and Quality.

Viitanen joined SKF in 1988 and has held a number of business unit and factory management roles in Sweden and internationally. The Group Quality function will also be integrated into Bearing Operations. He succeeds Luc Graux, who will take up a new role within Bearing Operations. Carina Bergfelt, in addition to her role as General Counsel and Senior Vice President, Legal and Sustainability, will take on the responsibility for People and Communication.

US: Jon R Tabor has been appointed as the chairman of Allied Mineral Products. He succeeds Jon K Tabor who becomes Chairman Emeritus of the refractory producer. Paul Jamieson, Corporate Vice President of Steel and Domestic Foundry, has been promoted to President.

In the role of chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), Jon R Tabor will retain responsibility for international and affiliate operations, Research and Development, Strategy, Finance, and the global scope of all other departments. Jamieson will take over Columbus-based Domestic Sales, Domestic Operations and Human Resources and report to Tabor.

Allied Mineral Products acquired the monolithic refractory and precast shapes producer Pryor Giggey in early 2017. It also plans to open a production plant in Russia.

Vietnam: The Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation (Vicem) has appointed Bui Hong Minh as its general director. He was previously the deputy general director of the company, according to the Viet Nam News newspaper. He replaces Tran Viet Thang who has been relieved from the role following allegations of business malpractice.

Minh, aged 46 years, has held the position of deputy general director at Vicem since 2013. Prior to that, he worked at the But Son and Ha Tien cement companies.

Guatemala: The Inter-American Cement Federation (FICEM) has appointed Alejandro Ramírez Cantú, the chief executive of Cemex in the Dominican Republic, as its new president for the period 2017 – 2020 at its technical congress. He succeeds Gabriel Restrepo, manager of Institutional Affairs at Cementos Argos, in the role, according to the 7 Dias newspaper.

Ramírez Cantú is an industrial and systems engineer trained at the Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico and he holds a Master's Degree in business administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He joined Cemex in 2000 and he has directed operations in Thailand, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.

Colombia: Organizacion Corona has announced that its President Carlos Enrique Moreno will be replaced by Jaime Alberto Angel from October 2017 as head of the Corona Industrial division. Angel will oversee the construction of a US$400m cement plant in the Sonson Municipality of Antioquia, which the group is building as a joint venture project with Spain’s Cementos Molins. The 1.35Mt/yr plant is expected to come online in early 2019.

Moreno said that the decision to split the company’s management was due to the construction of the cement plant. Angel will also look after Corona’s bathrooms and kitchens, materials and paints, energy and industrial supplies and tableware divisions.