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Bangladesh: The Bangladesh Cement Manufacturers Association (BCMA) has re-elected Alamgir Kabir as its president. Kabir is the vice-chairman of MI Cement Factory, which operates the Crown Cement band, according to the Daily Star newspaper. Md Shahidullah, the managing director of Metorcem Cement and chairman of Metrocem Group, and Zahir Uddin Ahmed, managing director of Confidence Cement, have also been re-elected as the first and second vice-president of the association respectively. The elections were held at the 20th annual general meeting of the BCMA in late October 2021.

UK: The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has elected Jan Jenisch as its president. He takes up the role with immediate effect and succeeds outgoing president, Albert Manifold, the chief executive officer (CEO) of CRH. As the first president of GCCA, Manifold oversaw its founding as a global platform for the concrete and cement industry and its work to unite the sector around the launch of its 2050 global roadmap to net zero concrete.

Jenisch was appointed CEO of Holcim (then LafargeHolcim) in 2017, having previously been CEO of Sika. He was also elected to the board of directors of Holcim in 2021. As president of the GCCA Jenisch will oversee the implementation of GCCA’s 2050 roadmap to net zero concrete, launched earlier in October 2021.

Jan Jenisch, GCCA President and CEO of Holcim said: “The net zero roadmap is exactly the collective endeavour that the association was established to deliver. Together we have set out a positive vision for how the cement and concrete industry will play a major role in building the sustainable world of tomorrow. With my board member peers, I look forward to overseeing the key progress we will make along that pathway, turning our vision and commitment into a reality.”

Peru: Yura has appointed Fernando Rojasa as its general manager. He succeeds Julio Cáceres who was working the position on a provisional basis, according to the Gestión newspaper.

Rojas, a Costa Rican national, holds a degree in chemical engineering and a Master in Business Administration from the University of Costa Rica. He worked for Cemex for over a decade becoming the director of operations for cement and lime in Puerto Rico and then the director of sustainability optimisation for Central America and the Caribbean.

Cáceres, who worked as Yura's Commercial Management Manager for Cement, has been appointed as the new Commercial Director of Cementos, Concretos y Cal in Peru, Chile and Bolivia.

France/US: Fortera has appointed Thierry Legrand as the president of its European region. The company said that the addition of a president in Europe was the first step in creating a broader presence allowing for Fortera's carbon reducing cement to be deployed on a global scale.

Legrand previously worked for Lafarge and Holcim for over 25 years in European, Asian and African markets. During this time he became the country chief executive officer (CEO) in South Africa and Malaysia before finally becoming the Project Director Logistic Europe for LafargeHolcim between 2018 and 2020. Legrand follows former LafargeHolcim CEO Eric Olsen in joining Fortera. Olsen was appointed to Fortera’s board of directors in June 2021.

Read more about Fortera in the October 2021 issue of Global Cement Magazine

India: HeidelbergCement India has appointed Ramakrishnan Ramamurthy as its chairman following the resignation of Akila Krishnakumar. Krishnakumar said she wanted to increase her work in the development sector. Ramamurthy started his career with Bosch (India) as an apprentice and worked with Murugappa Group for around twenty years. More recently he was the managing director of GMR Group, the president of Mytrah Energy and the chief executive officer of Sanmar Engineering.