People

UAE: Lafarge UAE has appointed Ali Saad as its CEO.

Saad previously worked as the General Manager - UAE from 2023. He started his career working for Lafarge Canada. Financial management roles followed with Unisource Canada and Cemena in Bahrain before he joined Holcim group in 2010. He worked as the chief financial officer in Iraq and then held general management positions in Iraq, Jordan and the UAE. Saad is a graduate in finance and strategic management from McGill University in Canada. He also holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada.

UK: Material Evolution has appointed Nigel Shewring as its Director of Research and Development (R&D).

Shewring holds over 25 years of R&D experience in a global industrial coatings environment. He worked for AkzoNobel Powder Coatings from 2006 and then became the Group Director for R&D at Hempel in 2019. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Durham and a PhD in material science from Sheffield Hallam University in the UK.

Material Evolution produces an 'ultra-low carbon' cement product called MevoCem. It commissioned its Mevo A1 Production Facility in Wrexham in 2024.

Canada: St Marys Cement has appointed Ali Firat as the Director, Operations at its Bowmanville cement plant in Ontario.

Firat previously worked as the Plant Manager at Traçim Çiment’s at Vize, Kirklareli in Türkiye. Before this he was a Production Manager for OYAK Cement. Earlier in his career he spent about 15 years working for Traçim Çiment and Ladik Cement in a variety of production roles. He is a graduate of the Middle East Technical University in Ankara and holds a master of business administration (MBA) from Bahcesehir University in Istanbul.

Spain: Heidelberg Materials Hispania has appointed Carlos Sánchez Galán as its Director General. He succeeds Jesús Ortiz Used in the post.

Sánchez Galán most recently worked as the Cement Commercial Director and Aggregates & Readymix Operations Director for the Spain-based subsidiary of Heidelberg Materials. Prior to this he was the Director Of Business Operations & Procurement. Throughout his career he has held a variety of managerial business development roles as well as working in commercial operations and purchasing. He originally joined Heidelberg Materials in 1997 as the Director for the Canary Islands.

Sánchez Galán is a graduate in Economics and Business Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid with a master's degree in business administration (MBA) from the Australian Graduate School of Management and a qualification in quarry technology from Doncaster College in the UK. He was also the president of the Spanish Association for concrete and mortar admixtures (ANFAH) from 2015 to 2017.

Türkiye: Two members of the cement sector have reportedly died in a fire at the Bolu Kartalkaya Ski Center. Aysemin Elif Dogan, Mehmet Cem Dogan and their daughter perished in the incident, according to posts by their employers on LinkedIn. 76 people have so far reported to have been killed.

Aysemin Elif Dogan was the R&D and Quality Director for Baştaş Çimento, a subsidiary of France-based Vicat.

Mehmet Cem Dogan had been the plant manager of OYAK Çimento’s Bolu plant in Caydurt since 2023. Prior to this he was the manager of a plant in Ankara. Dogan previously worked for Vicat’s subsidiary Baştaş Çimento and Cimpor in process engineering and production management roles.