Jesús Ortiz Used, chief executive of HeidelbergCement in Spain and president of UEPG (Union of European Producers of Aggregates), has been elected president of the group of cement manufacturers of Spain (Oficemen).
In his new role, Jesus Ortiz will promote the proposals and initiatives that aim to tackle the future challenges of the Spanish cement industry.
He said: “We have a modern industry, which brings together the latest advances in R&D in its processes, with a highly qualified staff, whose contribution to the circular economy and the fight against climate change is clear: either empowering tools such as substitution of fossil fuels or the recovery of materials, that allow to reduce the consumption of nonrenewable raw materials, or simply with the continuous improvement of our products, cement and its main derivative, concrete, whose properties throughout its life cycle make it a future material, highly competitive, capable of reducing the carbon footprint on the planet."
Ortiz began his professional career in French Economic Diplomacy in 1983 and joined the cement industry in the area of Development and Strategy in 1989. He was commercial general director of Financiera y Minera (now part of HeidelbergCement) in Spain until 2002.From 2002 to 2007 he was president and chief executive of the subsidiaries of the Ciments Français group in Greece and Bulgaria. In 2007, he moved to the group HeidelbergCement to assume the general direction of its activities in Spain.
From 2012 until 2016, he moved to Brussels to take over the supervision of the aggregate and concrete activities of the HeidelbergCement group in the European and Mediterranean area. Following the acquisition of the Italcementi group by HeidelbergCement in July 2016, Jesús Ortiz returned to Spain to carry out the integration of the two entities and lead their recovery and development.
