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Brazil: InterCement has appointed Paulo Eduardo Nigro has its chief executive officer (CEO). Paulo Nigro has acted as CEO in several countries including the US, Italy, Canada and Brazil. The company has also appointed Nicolas Fournier as a new non-executive member of its board of directors.

Nigro started his career as an engineering trainee at Philips in 1981, after which he joined Goodyear, working in industrial and automotive engineering. In 1991 he joined Tetra Pak as a sales manager for the Northeast region of Brazil, which he left to assume the vice presidency of the packaging division of its Canadian subsidiary. In 2001, Nigro was appointed president of Tetra Pak Italia, eventually taking on responsibility for Western Europe. In 2007, he returned to Brazil as president for the local and the Paraguayan markets, while at the same time leading Tetra Pak Latin America operations. He also took the leadership of Tetra Pak for the Americas, moving to Dallas, US where he joined the global top management team of the company. In 2014 Nigro was appointed president of Aché Laboratórios, in Brazil.

Nicolas Fournier holds 25 years of international experience in different industries in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and Middle East. With 20 years of global experience on the cement industry, working for Lafarge Group, he acted as CEO of Lafarge Boral Gypsum Asia and was the regional president of Lafarge for Central Europe. More recently, Fournier served as the Managing Director for Energy Solutions Division at Aggreko, UK.

Saudi Arabia: Badr Jawhar has resigned as the chief executive officer of Najran Cement for personal reasons.

In a separate announcement, Najran Cement has appointed Turki Bin Ali Al Shanifi to its board of directors. Turki Bin Ali Al Shanifi holds a degree in Computer Science, specialising in Information Systems and has over 20 years of experience in working with private sector companies in leadership positions. His appointment follows the resignation of Abdulwahab Bin Saud Al Babtain as an independent member of the board.

South Africa: PPC has announced that its interim chief executive Johan Claassen as chief executive and executive director of the group, effective 15 February 2018. He had been appointed as interim chief executive in July 2017 following the sudden resignation of Darryl Castle.

PPC chairperson Peter Nelson said that, since his appointment as interim chief executive, Claassen had overseen a number of important milestones. He said Claassen had also demonstrated that he had the right skills to lead effectively. PPC also confirmed Njombo Lekula as managing director of the group’s South African cement activities and Mokate Ramafoko as managing director for the rest of Africa’s cement activities.

Oman: Kuldip Chadha has been appointed as the financial officer of Raysut Cement. The Indian national is a qualified chartered accountant with over 40 years’ experience in internal audit, including 26 years at a senior management level.

The cement producer has also appointed Gopal Parikh as its chief operation officer. Gopal, also an Indian national, holds a BE (Mechanical) from Engineering College in India and has more than 30 years’ experience in cement industries at a senior management level.

Greece: Dimitris Hanis has been appointed as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Heracles Group, a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim. Hanis began working in Heracles Group in 2003 and has since taken executive positions in the group, according to the Athens News Agency. Heracles Group is the largest cement producer in Greece, with more than 100 years of presence in the market. It operates a network of 33 production and commercial facilities in the country.