South Africa: On 23 October 2014 PPC confirmed the resignation of Richard Tomes, joint managing director of PPC's South African business and one of the business's key sales and marketing personnel.

The resignation of Tomes comes a month after Ketso Gordhan resigned as CEO and the company's board subsequently plunged into a tussle with group shareholders seeking a new board. PPC said that Tomes, who joined the firm in 1998 and who shared the job as head of domestic operations with Johann Claassen, had resigned effective Thursday to 'pursue other opportunities.'

With his departure, Claassen will lead PPC's South African cement business, while Pepe Meijer remains managing director of PPC's international business. While PPC has lost an experienced managing director in Tomes, it sought to assure investors that its South African business remained under strong leadership: "Johan is a professional engineer who joined PPC in 1989 and has served as executive of cement operations and of lime," said PPC. "He has also held various other senior and general management roles across the cement and lime divisions."

Spain: Lafarge has appointed Maruxa Suarez as director of its Spanish plant in Villaluenga de la Sagra, Toledo. Suarez, who was previously a production director at the plant, will replace Mariano Garcia Hoyos. Suarez started working for Lafarge in 2004 at the environment unit of the company in Madrid. He later joined the management team as process engineer and production director.

Spain: Matteo Rozzanigo has been appointed as CEO of FYM, Italcementi's Spanish subsidiary. He is tasked with positioning the company in a cement market that is expected to stabilise and recover slowly after a prolonged crisis period. Rozzanigo replaces Mario Domenico Bracci, who held the post for the past three years and will now assume responsibilities for Ciments Maroc.

Rozzanigo holds an Industrial Engineering degree from the Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy and has been with Italcementi for 11 years. In the past five years, he was employed as Italcementi's director for the Near East, effectively managing the operations in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

India: UltraTech Cement has appointed Atul Daga as Chief Financial Officer of the company in place of KC Birla with effect from 1 December 2014. The decision was made at a board of directors meeting on 18 October 2014. The term of appointment of the managing director OP Puranmalka was extended for a period of one year until 31 March 2016.