By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Cement producer, Ashaka Cement Plc on Wednesday announced the resignation of its chairman Umaru Kwairanga and six (6) other directors from the board of the company.
The names of the directors whose resignation took effect from March 10, 2015 are John William Stull, vice chairman, Muhammed A. Muhammed, Kolawole Babalola Jamodu, Abubakar Ali Gombe, Lamido Abba Tukur and Hamra Imam.
In the same vein, the board of the cement maker appointed Mallam Suleiman Yahyah, as the new board chairman with effect from 12 March 2015.
They also appointed the following as non-executive directors with effect from 12 March 2015 they include Anders Kristiansson, Edith Onwuchekwa and Rabiu Abdullahi Umar.
According to Ashaka Cement, Kristiansson is a Swedish citizen who started his career with Procter & Gamble (P&G) in Scandinavia and thereafter worked for P&G in South Africa.
He was the Global Divisional Controller for Eaton Automotive working in Europe and North America, where after he went back to Africa to oversee Celtel’s (presently Airtel) finance departments across its African operations as Director of Financial Operations.
He moved to Nigeria in 2008 as Group CFO for PZ Cussons Nigeria, managing Finance and IT for PZ’s five Nigerian companies. Prior to joining Lafarge, he was the CFO for NBC/Coca-Cola HBC’s operations in Nigeria.
He holds a Master of Science Degree in Business Administration and Economics from the Gothenburg University, Sweden. He was appointed to the Board of Lafarge Africa Plc on 27 October 2014.
Onwuchekwais currently Country General Counsel/Head, Public Affairs of Lafarge Africa Plc. She joined Lafarge Cement WAPCO Nigeria Plc in April 2005. She became Company Secretary/Legal Adviser of Lafarge WAPCO in 2008.
She moved to the Lafarge Regional Office in Cairo Egypt in January 2011 as Legal Counsel, Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining Lafarge, she took up various Positions in Nigerian German Chemicals Plc and Jolimair Nigeria Limited as Legal/HR Manager and Company Secretary/Head of Administration respectively.
After her National Youth Service in Nigeria, she was actively engaged in legal practice as Head of Chambers and Barrister and Solicitor in reputable law firms in Nigeria.
She is a graduate of Law 1997 (LLB) and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1999 (BL) with second class upper honours and is currently an Associate of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of UK, 2009 (ACIS).
On his part, Umar joined Lafarge Nigeria as the Energy and Power Director in June 2014.
Prior to joining Lafarge, he worked in Oando Plc for over 14 years holding various leadership positions in sales & marketing, supply chain and general management. He left Oando as the Chief Operating Officer for the Terminal and Logistics arm of the group responsible for downstream infrastructure development and management in Africa.
His previous roles include Head of Retail Sales responsible for over 500 Retail outlets and Head of Operations covering supply, storage and distribution of Petroleum products, Engineering and Customer Service.
Umar is a graduate of Accounting from Bayero University Kano as well as General Management Program from Harvard Business School and a Certified ISO9001:2008 Lead Auditor.
