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New board member for Monarch Cement
Written by Global Cement staff
12 December 2012
US: On 7 December 2012, The Monarch Cement Company elected Steve Sloan to serve on the board effective immediately to fill the unexpired term of independent director Richard N Nixon, whose resignation was effective 31 October 2012.
Sloan, aged 51, moves to the board of the cement firm with 17 of years experience in the aggregate and ready-mixed concrete industry. He has served for many years as the President and CEO of Midwest Minerals, Inc, headquartered in Pittsburg, Kansas. His current responsibilities include oversight of the financial, production, sales and regulatory affairs of Midwest Minerals' ready-mixed concrete plant and 19 aggregate quarry operations.
Monarch said that Sloan has the experience and skills to provide exceptional insight and judgment relative to corporate governance, corporate strategy, budgeting, banking, financial reporting, administrative functions and risk management.
Sloan will be a non-employee member of the board and will participate in the board's compensation policy and practices for non-employee directors. His term as an independent Class I Director will expire at the Annual Meeting of Shareholders on 9 April 2014.
Thomas Schulz appointed as new CEO of FLSmidth
Written by Global Cement staff
05 December 2012
Denmark: Danish cement plant manufacturer FLSmidth has announced that Jørgen Huno Rasmussen, aged 60, group chief executive officer (CEO) of FLSmidth since 2003 has decided to retire in the middle of 2013 after 10 years of service. Thomas Schulz will be appointed new group CEO of and is expected to take up his new position no later than 1 June 2013.
Schulz, aged 47, is a German citizen and has since 1998 been part of Sandvik (Svedala Industries), currently as President of Sandvik's Construction business area and member of Sandvik's Executive Management Group, based in Sweden. From 2005 to 2011 Schulz was based in Germany, Sweden and Singapore as president of Construction and senior vice president of Mining and Construction. Schulz holds a MSc and PhD in Engineering from the Technical University of Aachen, Germany with a dissertation in Mineral Mining and Quarrying.
"On behalf of the Board, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Jørgen Huno Rasmussen for his decisive contribution to the successful turnaround and development of the FLSmidth Group and for his dedicated leadership over 10 years. I am sure Thomas Schulz will prove to be a worthy successor and look forward to welcoming him to FLSmidth", commented chairman of the board of FLSmidth, Vagn Ove Sørensen.
Lafarge UK/Tarmac joint venture appoints key staff
Written by Global Cement staff
28 November 2012
UK: Lafarge and Anglo American have appointed the chairman, chief executive office (CEO) and CFO of their joint-venture in the UK. Jamie Pike is appointed as non-executive Chairman, Cyrille Ragoucy as CEO and Guy Young as CFO of the joint-venture. The appointments are subject to the completion of the joint-venture and final clearance from the UK Competition Commission. It is anticipated that the joint-venture will commence operations in early 2013.
Jamie Pike, aged 57, is the non-executive chairman of Lupus Capital, a leading international supplier of building products to the door and window industry, RPC Group, a leading international supplier of rigid plastic packaging and MBA Polymers, a private US plastics recycling business. He was chief executive of Foseco, an international business serving the foundry and steel-making industries, until its acquisition by Cookson Group in April 2008. He led the buy-out of Foseco from Burmah Castrol in 2001, which culminated in flotation on the main market in 2005.
His early career was as a consultant with Bain and Co and A T Kearney before joining Burmah Castrol in 1991. He rose to chief executive of Burmah Castrol Chemicals before leading the Foseco buy-out. Pike was educated at the University of Oxford, holds an MBA from INSEAD and is a member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.
Cyrille Ragoucy, aged 56, is currently senior vice president for Health and Safety at Lafarge. From 2005 to 2009 he was CEO and regional president for Lafarge's cement operations in China (Lafarge Shui On Cement) where he was responsible for 25 plants and 10,000 people. Between 1999 and 2005 he was regional president for Aggregates, Concrete, Asphalt and Paving for Lafarge in Eastern Canada. Ragoucy joined the Lafarge group in 1998 as vice president Cement Strategy for Lafarge North America.
Guy Young, aged 43, has been CFO of Tarmac since 2010 with responsibility for Tarmac's financial, IT and legal operations as well as the pre-integration planning for the joint venture. Guy has been with Anglo American for 15 years in a variety of roles, including CFO of Scaw Metals, Group Procurement and within the CEO's Office. Guy was educated at the University of Cape Town and qualified as a chartered accountant after doing articles at Deloitte.
New chairman for PCA
Written by Global Cement staff
21 November 2012
US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) has announced that its board of directors has elected Cary O Cohrs, current president of American Cement Company, to be its new chairman during the association's autumn board meeting in Washington, DC. Cohrs succeeds Aris Papadopoulos of Titan America. John Stull, president and CEO of Lafarge North America Inc, was elected vice chairman.
"It is not only a pleasure but a great honour to serve as chairman of the board," Cohrs said. "We may be just beginning to emerge from the recession, but the prospects for cement and concrete are incredibly positive. With our shift in leadership from Skokie to Washington comes a greater focus on advocacy and government affairs. But we also must maintain our focus on national and local promotion initiatives and continue to drive gains in both market share and market size."
Cohrs has decades of experience in the cement industry. In 2000 he was appointed vice president of operations for Florida Rock Industries, where Cohrs also served as plant manager and construction manager. He also was a corporate project manager for Essroc Materials Inc, responsible for the installation and commissioning of capital projects in six cement plants and two grinding plants.
Claudiu Soare appointed CEO of Holcim Serbia
Written by Global Cement staff
14 November 2012
Serbia: Claudiu Soare has been appointed the chief executive officer of Holcim Serbia. Soare, aged 42, has been a member of the Holcim Romania team since 2000 and afterwards he became project manager at Holcim Services EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Asia) in Madrid.
Soare started with Holcim in the ready mixed concrete and aggregates division (RMX & AGG) as a Project Manager in 2000. In 2007 he became technical manager RMX & AGG and in 2011 he moved to Holcim Services EMEA, a shared service centre based in Madrid, Spain. Soare holds a Master degree in Electro-Mechanical Engineering and a MBA.