KHD Humboldt Wedag

Yizhen Zhu, Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Zhu has more than 13 years of experience in managing positions in the AVIC group. He has been leading the cement business division of AVIC Intl Beijing since 2005. In 2011, Mr. Zhu was appointed to the management board of KHD as Executive Vice President, a position he served until 2017. Within this position, he acquired profound knowledge of KHD’s internal processes and operations, which allowed him to strengthen the collaboration between AVIC and KHD. Mr. Zhu holds a degree in Engineering from the Beihang University (formerly known as the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics) as well as an MBA from Peking University.

Jürgen Luckas, Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Luckas has worked for KHD as Vice President of the Program Management Office (PMO), Vice President Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC), and as Vice President Global Internal Audit (GIA). He has a strong understanding of KHD’s processes, the project business and, of course, KHD’s business model. Before joining KHD in 2006, he worked as Senior Manager for one of the big four accounting firms. He holds a degree in economics from the Saarland University of Saarbrücken, Germany.

Matthias Jochem, Chief Operating Officer

Matthias Jochem has more than 30 years experience in plant engineering for large thermal power plants and cement production plants. He has served for various OEM’s as process engineer, head of engineering, head of project execution and SVP sales & proposals as well as in management board functions with responsibilities for sales, R&D and commercial. His international experience is with projects in the European Union, Eastern Europe, India and Iran. He was already employed by KHD Humboldt Wedag GmbH from 2003 to 2008 as Director Sales and Management Board member. Matthias Jochem holds a PhD degree in mechanical engineering / heat transfer from the Technical University of Aachen, Germany.

Matthias Mersmann, Chief Technology Officer

Mr. Mersmann holds a Dipl.-Ing.-degree of the Technical University of Aachen (RWTH), Germany and has more than 25 years experience in the cement industry. Throughout these years he has always been intensively working on technical innovation and optimization of machines and processes for the production of cement. Starting his business career as a pyro-process engineer with KHD in 1994, he then took on several management positions within KHD which gave him profound insight into all aspects of equipment engineering. 2008 he left KHD to found aixergee GmbH, an independent consultancy serving the international cement industry, which he directed till 2020. From 2010 till 2018 he was called into the executive committee of Loesche GmbH as its technical Director. Returning back to KHD in 2020, Mr. Mersmann is responsible for R&D, innovation and technology of products and services.

André Sybon, Head of Center of Excellence, Cologne

Mr. Sybon has worked for the KHD Group since 2005. He led various departments that focused on different product and business areas, which gives him an extensive knowledge of the complete KHD product portfolio. From 2017 to 2019 he was Head of Parts and Products. With the reorganization in 2019 he was appointed to General Manager of Humboldt Wedag GmbH and is now responsible for KHD’s Center of Excellence. The CoE comprises all functions that form the backbone of KHD’s technology and provides Product Management, Business Development, Engineering, Procurement of proprietary equipment, Process Engineering and R&D throughout KHD Group.

André holds a degree in process engineering (Dipl.-Ing.) from the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne.

Martin Gierse, Head of CSC EMEA

Mr. Gierse started his professional career as a R&D engineer in the new technology sector of the boiler industry in 1983. After assignments in process, commissioning and execution, he first came to KHD in 1992, where he was responsible for the Chinese market as a technical sales manager for four years. In 1996 he joined Pillard to occupy the position as head of sales, followed by various operational management functions at Lafarge in the European region between 1998 and 2008. Also in 2008, Martin then returned to KHD to lead the Customer Service Center in India for six years. He then came back to Germany after he was appointed as the global head of parts and services. He occupied this position at the Humboldt Wedag GmbH until 2018. After a brief one year assignment as general manager in the coal and minerals beneficiation industry, he returned to KHD in 2019 to lead the Humboldt Wedag GmbH as general manager of the Customer Service Center EMEA.
Martin holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the RWTH Aachen and a degree as tek. Lic. from the Technical University in Gothenburg.

Ashok Dembla, Head of CSC India

Ashok Dembla has over 34 years of experience in the cement industry.  He has held senior management positions at Cimmco Birla Limited, Gebr Pfeiffer India, Jaypee Cement and the Beumer Group in India. At Jaypee Cement he was responsible for its growth from 7 million tons to 32 million tons of capacity as Head of Projects. Mr. Dembla was instrumental in building KHD’s Indian organization from 5 employees in 2001 to its current size over 280 employees and a market-leading position. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering  from Punjab University, Chandigarh as well as a Diploma from the All India Management Association.

Dwayne Holland, Head of CSC Americas

Dwayne Holland has nearly 30 years of professional experience in industrial plant engineering and CAPEX project execution, with more than 16 years directly in the cement industry and 12 years at KHD. While with KHD he has also held the positions of Senior Project Manager and Sales Director at CSC Americas. Dwayne has a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (“Georgia Tech”) and received a Master of Business Administration degree from Georgia State University.

Wolfgang Pajonke, Head of CSC Russia/CIS

Wolfgang holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration and has over 30 years of experience in the cement industry, with a strong focus on the markets of the former Soviet Union.   He is also a longstanding member of the management board of ZAB GmbH in Dessau.

Jianlong Shen, Head of CSC China

Mr. Shen is the head of KHD's CSC in China as well as the President of the Cement Business Unit of AVIC Interrnational. Jianlong has more than 28 years of working expericence in the cement industry. Among other stations, Mr. Shen occupied a leading position at Sinoma Engineering and Equipment Corporation Ltd..