People

Demark: Hasle Refractories has appointed Carsten Riisberg Lund as chair of its board of directors.

Riisberg Lund has worked in the cement industry for 35 years mostly for equipment supplier FLSmidth. His most recent role was as FLSmidth’s Cement Industry President since late 2020. Before this he worked as the President for Region Europe, North Africa and Russia (ENAR). He started his career as a Process and Commissioning Engineer for FLSmidth. Since then he led FLSmidth’s former Material Handling division and spent three years as managing director in India.

US: Fortera has appointed Scott Healy as its chief financial officer (CFO). He has worked for 30 years in the wind, solar, natural gas, plastic recycling and energy industries. Notable recent positions include CFO and Senior Vice President at recycling company Brightmark.

Fortera is a materials technology company that has developed a recarbonation process that uses captured CO₂ and mineralises it into a secondary cementitious material.

Kuwait: ACICO Group has appointed Vassilis Mavridis as its Group Chief Operating Officer for Factories. He previously worked for Sibline as its Chief Operating Officer in Lebanon. Prior to this he worked for Titan Cement in Greece for around 18 years, eventually becoming the plant manager of the Thessaloniki Plant from 2003 to 20211 (2021 or 2011?). Mavridis holds a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and qualifications from Cranfield University in the UK and the Harvard Business School.

Poland: Vesuvius Poland has appointed Piotr Sperka as Site Director and the president of its management board. He has worked for Vesuvius and its US-based subsidiary since 2007. He started as a production manager for Vesuvius USA, eventually becoming a Plant Operations Producer Manager in 2017. He later held roles as the Operations Manager - Advanced Refractories in Poland for Vesuvius and SLG and Purging Products Director EMEA. Sperka holds a master’s degree in mechanics and machine design from the Cracow University of Technology and a qualification in Postgraduate Business Studies.

Finland: Coolbrook has appointed Nigel Pearce as Head of Manufacturing and Supply Chain. He previously worked at Rolls-Royce where he held a number of positions in his 33-year career at the company, most recently as Head of Manufacturing Engineering. He joins Coolbrook with experience in the development of gas turbine technology. At Coolbrook, Pearce will lead the company's manufacturing team, overseeing the planning, coordination, and performance of its processes. He will also be responsible for developing new and existing relationships with suppliers and optimising the procurement of materials and technology needed for Coolbrook to meet its production timeline.

Coolbrook is a technology and engineering company that is developing processes to replace the burning of fossil fuels in major industrial sectors. Its RDH has potential applications in cement, steel and chemical production process. Its Roto Dynamic Reactor (RDR) is intended to eliminate CO₂ emissions from the steam cracking process used in the production of plastic.