People

Nigeria: BUA Cement has appointed Chikezie Ajaero as its acting chief financial officer. He succeeds Jacques Piekarski in the post, who resigned at the end of April 2024.

Ajaero is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and has over 25 years of experience in financial reporting and control. He also holds a masters of business administration from the University of Lagos. He previously worked as the finance director for the company’s Obu cement plant since 2020.

Thailand: Siam City Cement has appointed Ranjan Sachdeva as its Group CEO from the start of May 2024. He succeeded the previous CEO, Aidan Lynam, on an acting basis in January 2024. He will also continue to work as the Group Chief Financial Officer until a replacement is found.

Sachdeva has worked for Siam City Cement since 2017, first as the Group Head Internal Audit and Compliance and then as the Group Chief Financial Officer, from April 2023. Prior to this he worked in procurement and audit roles for Holcim in India. He has also spent time at Vedanta and Nestle during his career. He holds a bachelor of engineering from the Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology and a master of business administration (MBA) degree from the University of Leicester, among other qualifications.

Switzerland: Holcim has appointed Marco Maccarelli as its Director of Central and Eastern Europe. He will succeed Simon Kronenberg in the post in June 2024, according to the 24 Heures newspaper. The position includes the responsibility of head of Holcim Schweiz.

Maccarelli is currently working as the CEO of Holcim Colombia. Prior to this, he worked for Holcim Mexico first as Director Innovation and Commercial Development and later as Director Cement Sales & Retail. He has worked for Holcim for over 15 years and holds more than 20 years’ experience in the construction sector.

Oman: The Financial Services Authority has reconstituted the board of directors of Raysut Cement. It has appointed Shabib Mohammed Al Darmaki as its chair with Naser Jumaa Al Zadjali, Badr Awad Al Shanfari, Ali Rashid Ali Al Shuhi and Abdulhameed Ahmed Al Balushi as members. The new board is intended to follow the role of the previous board by completing the “reorganisation and restructuring of the company and fine-tune its governance to ensure stability of its financial and operational positions to correct its path to ensure sustainable performance and protect the interest of all the shareholders and enhance the stability of the market.”

In December 2022 the Capital Market Authority (CMA) replaced the board of directors of Raysut Cement and appointed a temporary one following a financial audit. This followed the CMA publicly questioning the validity of the company’s third quarter results in 2022 when it detected ‘material misrepresentation.’

Morocco: The Moroccan Cement Association (APC) has elected Said El Hadi as its president. He succeeds Khalid Cheddadi in the role, according to Les Echo newspaper. El Hadi is the president of LafargeHolcim Maroc. The APC represents cement producers in the country including Asment Temara, Atlas Cements, Ciments du Maroc, LafargeHolcim Maroc and Novacim. The members of the association operate 14 plants with a production capacity of over 24Mt/yr.