Germany: US-based separation company Eriez has appointed Eric Adams as Managing Director of its newly established Germany-based subsidiary Eriez Deutschland. The new role will see Adams working to increase Eriez’ presence throughout central Europe. He will report to Eriez’s Vice President - International Jaisen Kohmuench.

Adams has three decades of experience in technical sales of capital equipment prior to joining Eriez as a sales. He previously worked for Germany-based Fördertechnik, Noell Service und Maschinentechnik and Herrenknecht, before joining Steinert Elektromagnetbau as general sales manager.

Eriez CEO and president Lukas Guenthardt said “Eric has been working closely with our executive team at Eriez-Europe to craft and execute a comprehensive business plan that addresses the needs of the German market.” He added “We recognise that this area of Europe is far too important to properly serve via an independent agent or distributor and therefore requires a direct and constant presence in the form of Eriez Deutschland, guided by the strong leadership of Eric.”

Australia: Ryan Stokes has been appointed as the chairman of Boral. The appointment follows Seven Group’s acquisition of a majority shareholding in Boral in late July 2021. Kathryn Fagg, the former chair, has retired from Boral. Richard Richards, a Seven Group nomination, has also been appointed as a director. Stokes is the managing director and chief executive officer of Seven Group, an Australian-based conglomerate that operates in the industrial services, oil and gas and media sectors.

India: The National Council for Cement and Building Materials (NCB) has elected KC Jhanwar as its chairman for the year 2021 – 2022. Shri Neeraj Akhoury was elected as the vice-chairman.

KC Jhanwar is currently the managing director of UltraTech Cement and the president of the Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA). He originally joined Aditya Birla Group in 1981 as a management trainee in the cement business. Since then he has worked across finance, operations and general management roles in the cement and chemical sectors. Jhanwar is a chartered accountant by qualification.

Neeraj Akhoury is currently the managing director and chief executive officer of Ambuja Cement and the vice-president of the CMA. He holds over 25 years of experience in the cement and steel sectors. He began his career with Tata Steel in 1993 and later joined the predecessor company to Holcim Group in 1999. Akhoury holds a degree in economics and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Liverpool in the UK. He is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School in the US and had studied general management at XLRI business school at Jamshedpur.

Russia: Sibirsky Cement has appointed Dmitry Kireev as the managing director of the Krasnoyarsk cement plant and Vladimir Afanasin as the managing director of the Angarskcement plant.

Kireev worked at Sibirsky Cement’s Topkinsky cement plant from 2001 until 2013, eventually becoming the director for equipment maintenance and repair. He was then appointed as the managing director of TimlyuiCement before becoming the head of the Angarskcement plant in 2016. He is a graduate of the Belgorod Technological Institute of Building Materials and the Kuzbass State Technical University. He also holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the Moscow International Higher School of Business (MIRBIS).

Afanasin became the deputy chief engineer at the Topkinsky cement plant in 2007. He later worked at Krasnoyarsk cement plant until 2011 as the chief engineer, technical director and the production director. In 2011, he became the head of Angarskcement and then managed the Krasnoyarsk cement plant from 2016. Afanasin is a graduate of the Belgorod Technological Institute of Building Materials and holds an MBA from MIRBIS.