Lafarge India, an arm of the leading French building materials company Lafarge, on Wednesday announced a number of top-level re­shuffle. Deepak Parekh, ch­airman of the HDFC in India, stepped down as the non-executive chairman only to join Lafarge’s International Advisory Board. Uday Khanna replaced Parekh as the non – executive chairman, an official communiqué from the company said.

It may be mentioned that Khanna, the new non-executive chairman of the Indian arm had joined Lafarge Group in 2003 as senior vice-president of Group Strategy in Paris and moved to India as MD and CEO of the Indian operations in 2005. Effective from August 17, 2011, Khanna retired from his position of MD and CEO, Lafarge India Private.

Simultaneously, Danilo Buscaglia, who is the present chief operating officer – east zone, and Ujjwal Batria, who is the current chief projects officer, will become joint managing directors, holding management responsibility for Lafarge India Private, in charge of the cement business of the company’s Indian operations, the communiqué said.

Isidoro Miranda, executive vice-president, co-president of the cement business, Lafarge, said, “We are absolutely delighted that Deepak Parekh has agreed to join the international advisory board of Lafarge Group. Our India business unit has already benefited greatly from his guidance, and he will continue to provide us with invaluable advice in this new position on a global basis."