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US: Holcim US has announced that Filiberto Ruiz will serve as its deputy chief executive officer of Holcim and Aggregate Industries US as part of its 'Leadership Journey.' Prior to his promotion, Ruiz was senior vice president, sales & marketing for Holcim US.

Ruiz began his career with the Holcim Group in 1986 as electrical supervisor with Holcim Apasco, Mexico, later becoming plant manager. In 1999, Filiberto became regional vice president, manufacturing for Holcim US. He returned to Holcim Apasco as cement operations, vice president, and moved back to Holcim US in 2006 as senior vice president, manufacturing. He has been in his current role, senior vice president, sales & marketing, since 2010.

US: Jose Llontop has joined Giant Cement as its new CEO and president. He joins the company with 14 years of experience in the industry. Previously he has held senior level positions at Cemex, including being the regional president for a US$1bn sales operation for countries in Central Eastern Europe and being the president of Cemex Egypt.

"Llontop is a professional with a long and successful career in the cement industry, who has held positions of high responsibility in different countries and achieved excellent results," said Juan Bejar, chairman and CEO of Cementos Portland Valderrivas, the Spanish company that owns Giant.

Llontop received his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, completed his MBA at Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA, and attended the Harvard Business School's General Manager Program in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

Llontop served as chairman of the Cemex supervisory board in Austria and as vice chairman of the Cemex board in Egypt. Since 2010 Llontop was the president of Saudi Readymix, and the senior vice president of Building Materials for Alturki Group in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia.

Germany: Dr Michael Mutz has been appointed as the new head of division, Minerals & Mining, at Aumund Fördertechnik GmbH in Rheinberg.

"We are thus strengthening the team and we are advancing the business segment expansion in this prospering market," commented Aumund managing director Jörg Hoffmann on the appointment.

The 41 year-old from Westphalia, Germany comes from a mining family and has continued the family tradition, studying geology specialised in the exploration of solid mineral raw materials, oil and gas. Mutz started out with various mining prospecting projects, including Roland Berger and CPRM, the Brazilian state geological service.

After many years' activity in iron ore mining in Brazil (ThyssenKrupp) Mutz graduated from the Technical University of Clausthal in geology. His experience in the machinery and equipment business started in 2006 at Hazemag & EPR where he headed-up international sales and coordination of key accounts from 2008.

"The good reputation of the Aumund Group and the decades of successes in the cement, power and metallurgy sectors are a solid foundation to also gain a foothold as a supplier in the very service-oriented mining business," said Mutz.

Mutz has been in post at Aumund since April 2012.

Russia: Nikolay Skornyakov has been appointed chief executive officer of Zhigulevskie Stroymaterialy plant, part of the Eurocement Group. Previously, Skornyakov was the technical director of the cement plant located in Zhigulewsk in Samara.

Skornyakov was born in 1950 in Ulyanovsk. In 1980 he graduated from the Belgorod State Technological Institute of Construction Materials focusing on chemical technology binders. He has since worked in the cement industry for about 40 years, starting at a plant in Ulyanovsk in 1969 as an electrician. In 2001 he was appointed technical director of the Ulyanovsk plant subsequently becoming first deputy chief executive officer.

In 2005 Skornyakov became chief executive officer of the Pikalevskiy plant. In 2006 he became the deputy chief executive office – technical director of the Mikhailovcement plant in the Ryazan region. Since 2009 Skornyakov has been the deputy chief executive officer - technical director of the Zhigulevskie Stroymaterialy plant.

Switzerland: As part of its 'Holcim Leadership Journey', the Swiss cement multinational has announced a series of personnel changes to save at least Euro1.25bn by 2014.

The group's Europe region (excluding the UK) will be consolidated and led by current member of the Holcim Executive Committee Roland Köhler. The North America and UK region will report to Bernard Terver who has been appointed member of the Holcim Executive Committee.

Corporate functions that directly contribute to the programme to strengthen customer excellence and cost leadership will be led within the newly created project management office for the 'Holcim Leadership Journey' by Urs Bleisch. He has been appointed corporate functional manager and member of the senior management of Holcim. He will be reporting directly to the CEO of Holcim, Bernard Fontana.

Member of the Holcim executive committee Urs Böhlen will leave the executive committee and act as an advisor to the CEO of Holcim until his retirement in 2013. Members of the executive committee Benoît-H. Koch and Patrick Dolberg will leave the group.