Gypsum industry news

France: Saint-Gobain has appointed Benoit Bazin as its chief operating officer in an organisational and portfolio review process. The ‘Transform & Grow’ program intends to create a new organisational structure with five reporting units to improve growth and allow for a more ‘agile’ group structure.

"Saint-Gobain is evolving in a fast changing market environment, which can be a source of substantial growth opportunities, provided we are sufficiently close to our markets and sufficiently agile. We are launching an ambitious transformation plan, 'Transform and Grow' based on two pillars, an in-depth transformation of the Group's organisational structure and an accelerated portfolio rotation program,” said chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Pierre-André de Chalendar.

The new structure will consist of five reporting units, with four regional businesses and a global High Performance Solutions unit. The new regional groups will be Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Americas and Asia-Pacific. The High Performance Solutions unit will include High-Performance Materials (HPM) and the Sekurit (automotive glass) business.

The program also plans to accelerate the group’s portfolio rotation. It is preparing to divest businesses worth around Euro1bn by the end of 2019. More than 10 companies of various sizes across all sectors are being actively prepared for divestment and three significant processes have already been launched.

US: Saint-Gobain North America has appointed Robert Panaro as its chief financial officer (CFO) and Senior Vice President of Finance. He previously worked as Vice President and CFO of CertainTeed, Saint-Gobain’s largest subsidiary in North America, and brings more than 25 years of experience to his new role. In his current role, Panaro will be responsible for overseeing mergers and acquisitions, capital investments and financial services in North America. He assumed the position earlier this year, succeeding Philippe Nouailhac as Senior Vice President of Finance and CFO for Saint-Gobain North America.

Panaro graduated from Boston College and holds a Bachelor of Science in management with a concentration in accounting and finance. He has served on the board of directors for the Grid Company, a joint venture between CertainTeed and Bailey Metals, Merit Abrasives and EcoTarium, a Natural Science Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts.

New Zealand: Fletcher Building has appointed Martin Brydon as a non-executive director with effect from 1 September 2018. Brydon, who is currently the chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director of Adelaide Brighton, is scheduled to retire from the Australian company later in 2018. Chairman Ralph Norris said that Fletcher Building is focusing on the New Zealand and Australian markets and that an Australian director who will help this strategy.

Brydon has worked for over 40 years in the Australian building products sector. He started his career as an indentured engineering cadet with BHP, before progressing to general management roles with Cockburn Cement, where he then served as CEO from 1998 - 1999. Brydon joined Adelaide Brighton in 1999 and held a number of general management roles before his appointment as CEO and managing director in 2014.

New Zealand: Fletcher Building has appointed Michele Kernahan as Chief Executive Building Products. His former position of Chief Executive Construction will be taken by Peter Reidy, currently Chief Executive KiwiRail. Both appointments are effective from early November 2018. David Thomas, currently serving as the Interim Chief Executive Building Products, will return to his role as General Manager Winstone Wallboards once the appointments are effective.

UK: British Gypsum has appointed Stacey Temprell as Marketing Director and Paul Lake as Sales Director. Both directors will work together to develop and roll out plans for the company’s range of products and services.

Temprell was previously responsible for supporting the development of Saint-Gobain’s Habitat strategy in the UK and Ireland, leading its marketing function. She first joined the Saint-Gobain Group with British Gypsum, where she had responsibility for the Gyproc range of plasterboards and plasterboard accessories and managing the product range transition to meet new building regulations, before moving into the role of Residential Market Manager.

Lake previously led the Ecophon organisation in the UK and Ireland. He brings to the role experience in both sales and general management at Ecophon and latterly as Business Units Director responsible for Saint-Gobain Ceilings for the UK, Ireland, South Africa and Benelux countries.

India: USG Boral has appointed Sumit Bidani as the chief executive officer (CEO) of its Indian operations. He will also be responsible for developing the growth strategies and expansion of USG Boral across South Asia, according to Dataquest.

Sumit is a graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and a post-graduate from XLRI, Jamshedpur. Prior to his role at USG Boral, Sumit was the Managing Director at Formica India and has held senior positions in global companies such as Colgate Palmolive, General Mills, and Shell Lubricants.

USG Boral India operates two plants in the country: a plasterboard and metal plant in Khushkhera, New Delhi and a joint compound and putty plant in Chennai.

US: The Gypsum Association has elected Charles R Harrison as the chair of its board of directors. Harrison is the Vice President Technology & Product Innovation of the Gypsum Division of Georgia-Pacific. Other appointments that have been elected include USG’s Albert R Zucco as the vice-chair of the board, CertainTeed Gypsum’s Peter Mayer as treasurer and the Gypsum Association's Stephen H Meima as the secretary. Continental Building Products’ Timothy Power is the past chair of the board. Officers were elected at the meeting of the Association’s board of directors in Jacksonville, Florida. All terms are for one year and are effective from 1 May 2018.

Singapore: Sincap has appointed Teng Wai Leung Wilson as an independent director. Teng, aged 53 years, is the chief execute director of Datapulse Technology, a provider of digital storage products and services. Previous to this he worked for iAdvantage, Digital Reality and GTT Communications.

France: Saint-Gobain has appointed Laurence Pernot as its Communications Vice President (VP). She joins the company from Vallourec Group, where she has been the Communications VP since 2013.

Following post-graduate studies in American History and Anthropology at the University of the Sorbonne, Pernot began her career with the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. In 1993, she was appointed Communications VP for the Regional Council of Loire Atlantique, before moving to the industry and joining the Areva Group in 2001. She stayed there until 2013, initially as Communications VP for the Areva La Hague site and then as Communications VP for Areva North America, based in Washington DC, US, and finally as Deputy Communications VP for the Areva Group.

Mexico: Gabriel Pérez Kohler has been appointed as the general manager of Knauf Mexico. Kohler is a graduate of the University of Texas and was previously the general manager at Strategic Media. He holds 18 years of experience in the construction industry in Mexico, including a number of jobs and projects for business growth in the country of Black & Decker, Sherwin Williams and USG amongst other companies.