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Canada: A man has died after falling nearly 10m from a catwalk at Lafarge Canada’s Beachville limestone quarry near Woodstock, Ontario on 23 August 2017. Walter Nuvoloni, 47, was a long-standing purchasing manager at the company. He had been in the position since 2001.

"This is a very difficult and tragic incident and we are deeply saddened at the loss of our colleague,” said Karine Cousineau, Lafarge spokesperson, in a statement. “Our thoughts are with our colleague's friends and family. Lafarge is providing the support of our employee assistance program to help co-workers cope with the loss." Cousineau added that Lafarge Canada would not be commenting further on Nuvoloni's death.

Police initially held the scene before turning over the investigation to the Ontario Ministry of Labour, which is investigating the death. Ontario Provincial Police Constable Stacey Culbert told local press that the ministry will re-contact police if the investigation deems any action to be criminal.

US: Ash Grove Cement has announced that its Chief Operating Officer J Randall Vance has been promoted to Chief Executive Officer. Charles Sunderland, who has held both the chairman and CEO titles, will remain as chairman of the Overland Park-based company.

Vance joined Ash Grove in 2011 as Chief Financial Officer, according to a release. In 2014, he was named as president and COO, filling a position that had been vacant since the death of Charles Wiedenhoft in 2010.

South Africa: PPC has appointed Njombo Lekula as the managing director of its Sothern Africa Cement division. The appointment is part of a number of changes to the cement producer’s executive team that have been announced in an operational update for its first financial quarter that ended on 30 June 2017. Mokate Ramafoko has also been appointed as the managing director of the Rest of Africa Cement division and Matodzi Mukwevho has been appointed as the group executive finance and business support officer in support of the chief finance officer.

Previously, Lekula was the managing director for PPC Zimbabwe following his appointment in 2013. An engineer by profession he studied chemical engineering and holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Stellenbosch Business School.

Ramafoko holds over 23 years of experience in the cement in the cement manufacturing, quality assurance and cement process optimisation industries. He has held various leadership positions in PPC, including working for Cimerwa in Rwanda, as well positions with Holcim South Africa. He holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration, a BSc and BSc (Hons) Metallurgy.

Mukwevho has held various positions including that of chief finance officer (CFO) at Sasol International Energy responsible for South Africa, Nigeria, Qatar, India and Uzbekistan. He also held the position of CFO at Sasol Polymers in South Africa, Iran, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong and UAE. Matodzi holds a Master’s of Business Administration and is a chartered accountant.

India: Manish Bhatia has been appointed as the chief financial officer of Prism Cement. He succeeds Pramod K Akhramka who has resigned from the company. Bhatia holds over 20 years experience in corporate finance.

Colombia: Rafael Olivella Vives has been appointed as the Vice President of Legal and Institutional Affairs at Cementos Argos. He succeeds Juan Luis Múnera who has secured the role as vice president of Corporate Legal Affairs at Grupo Sura. Olivella trained as the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana and the Universidad de los Andes before working for Ignacio Sanín Bernal & Cía. He joined Cementos Argos in 2008 and subsequently became the vice president of Corporate Affairs at Celsia, the energy business of the Argos Group.