People

Russia: France's Lafarge, the world's largest cement producer, has announced that it has appointed André Martin to the position of chief executive in its Russian division. He replaces Alex de Valukhoff.

"To come to Russia and serve as the CEO of Lafarge Russia is an honour I find humbling and motivating," said Martin to the Moscow Times. "Together with the team of professionals we are committed to contributing to the building of better cities."

Martin joined Lafarge in 1995, initially working in cement mergers and acquisitions before rising to the post of president of Lafarge-Agregate-Betoane in Romania in 1999. He has also worked for Lafarge in North America. Most recently Martin was the senior vice president for Lafarge's industrial customer segment in Paris.

Austria: Ghassan Broummana has been appointed managing director of A TEC Group from 1 October 2013. As managing director Broummana will be responsible for sales and marketing within the A TEC and A TEC GRECO group.

Broummana started his career in 1987 designing and starting-up cement plants. In 1996 he joined Holcim Group Support in Switzerland where he developed and implemented various corporate initiatives. In 2004, he moved to Holcim's subsidiary in Thailand, Siam City Cement, to start up a new business unit preparing alternative fuels and raw materials from industrial and household waste.

In 2009 Broummana joined the managing committee and executive committee respectively of Holcim's subsidiaries in India, ACC and Ambuja Cements. Here he restructured Techport, the unified technical support service centre that provides expertise to both ACC and Ambuja Cements with the aim of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of over 25 integrated cement plants and grinding stations and managing all the major capital expenditure projects for both companies.

Broummana holds a Diploma in Electrical Engineering and a Diploma in Wirtschafts-Ingenieur (MBA) from the University of Dortmund. He has also completed a 'Program for Executive Development' at IMD-Lausanne and 'Advanced Management Program' at Harvard Business School, US.

Saudi Arabia: Al Jouf Cement has appointed Eissa Baissa as director general, effective from 15 September 2013.

Prior to joining Al-Jouf, Baissa was general manager of one of the cement companies operating in Saudi Arabia, Al-Jouf said without disclosing the name of that company. Al-Saleh has a Bachelor Degree in mining engineering from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, and a Ph.D. in business administration from University of Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

UK: Bill Brett has been appointed as the chairman of the Mineral Products Association (MPA) for the next two years to 2015. He will succeed Dyfrig James. Brett, the chairman of Brett Group, has a wide range of commercial interests and industry involvement.

"Members have appreciated Dyfrig's inclusive approach and the efforts he has made to engage with all parts of the MPA, particularly in the regions and of course his beloved Wales," said Nigel Jackson, chief executive of the MPA. "The MPA would like to thank Dyfrig for all his efforts and wish Bill Brett every success for his two year tenure."

Denmark: Cement plant manufacturer FLSmidth has announced that Virve Elisabeth Meesak has been appointed to a newly created position in Group Executive Management as Group Executive Vice President, Global Human Resources. She will take up her new position on 1 September 2013. The new role has been created in an effort to effectively strengthen the FLSmidth Group's competitiveness by focusing more on strategic human resource management.

Meesak, 53, is a Swedish citizen and has been an independent Human Resource consultant specialised in change management, leadership training and executive coaching since 2010. Between 2008 and 2010 she was Human Resource Director for Alstom Power Services (North East Europe) and from 2005 to 2008 she held the position of Vice President (Human Resources) at Sandvik Mining and Construction AB. Prior to 2005 Meesak had a number of other vice president roles.