People

US: The Board of Directors of National Cement Company, a subsidiary of Vicat Group, has elected James E Rotch as Chairman of the Board of National Cement Company. Rotch will continue in the practice of corporate law with the firm of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, a regional law firm with offices throughout the Southeast, including Birmingham, Alabama, in addition to his duties as Chairman of the Board.

Romania: The Romanian unit of Swiss cement producer Holcim has announced that Francois Petry will be appointed as its director general as of 1 February 2014. Currently the general manager for aggregates at Holcim France, he joined the Swiss firm in 2008. He will replace Daniel Bach.

Bach has recently been appointed Area Manager for South East Asia and will be in charge of the Holcim subsidiaries from Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore, according to a statement from Holcim Romania.

"Romania is one of the most important markets of Holcim Group in Europe, with significant growth potential," said Petry. "It's not going to be an easy job, as the economy is still recovering from the global crisis, but I know that we have here all that is needed to continue on the same successful path: talented and devoted people as well as modern and efficient production facilities."

Holcim Romania operates two integrated cement plants.

Russia: Yuri Kozlovsky has been appointed as Managing Director of Krasnoyarsk Cement plant, part of the Sibirsky Cement Holding group. Kozlovsky previously served as the technical director for the plant. He started his career in 1987 at the Topkinsky cement plant, graduated from the Belgorod Technological Institute of Building Materials in 1993 and returned to Topkinsky until 2011.

Denmark: FLSmidth has announced the appointment of Eric Thomas Poupier to a newly created position in group executive management, as group executive vice president, business development. Poupier will take up his new position on 15 January 2014.

Since 2011 Poupier has been a manager at Bain and Company in Stockholm, managing projects for Nordic clients. From 2007 to 2011 he was a consultant for Bain and Company and specialised in reorganisation, growth strategy, sales force effectiveness and performance improvements. Over 2005 to 2007 Poupier completed a full time MBA study in the USA and in 2005 he held the position of purchasing manager for Bosch Group in Changzhou, China. Previous to 2005 Poupier had a number of managerial positions in strategic purchasing within the Bosch Group in Germany.

Eric Poupier brings with him a broad experience within business and strategy development as well as within purchasing and change management. The new business development position in group executive management was created in an effort to strengthen FLSmidth Group's competitiveness by focusing more on effectiveness, strategy development and integration.

Sri Lanka: Holcim Lanka has appointed Nirmala GihanWickremeratne as chairman and Premila Perera as director.

Wickremeratne has a long and distinguished career at one of Sri Lanka's most respected conglomerates, the Hayleys Group, where he served as managing director / CEO of Dipped Products Group and later as chairman and chief executive of the Hayleys Group. He is credited with the establishment of Dipped Products plc and its evolution into a world leader in its field. Wickremeratne was the founder chairman of the Sri Lanka Association of Manufacturers and Exporters of Rubber Products (SLAMERP) and has been a committee member of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber's representative on the National Labour Advisory Council and president of the Sri Lanka-France Business Council. Following his retirement, he served as an independent non- executive director of a premier private sector bank.

Premila Perera, formerly partner and head of tax at KPMG in Sri Lanka, is a fellow of the institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka. She has served as regional tax director of KPMG Asia Pacific in Singapore, a member of KPMG International's 'Firm of the Future' Task Force and on the faculty of the Tax Business School of KPMG International.