Ireland: CRH has appointed Richard Boucher as its chairman designate. He will succeed the present chairman, Nicky Hartery, on 1 January 2020. Hartery, who has been chairman since May 2012 and a board member since 2004, will retire as chairman and from the board at the end of 2019.

Boucher, aged 61 years, joined the board of CRH in March 2018 and has been chairman of CRH’s Remuneration Committee since September 2018. He was chief executive of Bank of Ireland Group from 2009 to 2017. He also held a number of key senior management roles within Bank of Ireland, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank. He is a nonexecutive Director of Kennedy Wilson Holdings and Eurobank Ergasias.

UAE: The board of Sharjah Cement and Industrial Development elected Othman Mohammed Sharif Abdullah as its new chairman at a meeting on 12 October 2019. Mubasher has reported that the company, which is based in the UAE, and also listed in Kuwait, also appointed Salah Abdulla Al Noman to its board.

Zambia: The majority government-owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mine (ZCCM) Investment Holdings has appointed Mabvuto Chipata its chair. ZCCM’s cement division faces the challenge of national overcapacity due to market saturation as it moves ahead with the US$600m construction of a 1.6Mt/yr integrated cement plant and 57MW power station in Masaiti, Copperbelt province. Thierry Charles, speaking on behalf of the Euronext minority shareholders, expressed relief at ‘the definitive turning of a page on several years of hazardous, inconsistent and disastrous investments.’

UK: Dr Nina Cardinal has joined Hanson Cement as its new national technical manager. She heads up the division’s technical team, which offers customers advice, information and support on all cement and cementitious issues.

Nina previously worked at Tata Speciality Steels for more than 20 years, latterly as technical director responsible for a 70-strong team, before joining the University of Sheffield as director of operations in the Faculty of Science in 2016.

“I am delighted to join the Hanson team,” said Cardinal. “I am looking forward to building on our market-leading technical support and working with our customers to ensure they get the best possible customer service.”

Mark Hickingbottom, commercial director bulk products, added, “Nina has an excellent understanding of product and service development and will be working with customers and operational teams across our cement and concrete business lines.”