After almost 30 years working for the company in the South-East Readymix business, Area Manager, Nigel Tozer, has been appointed General Manager & Head of Construction segment for TCL/RML in Trinidad and Tobago – reporting to Jose Luis Seijo Gonzalez, CEO/Director TCL Group. Swapping his wellies for some flip-flops, he’s departed for Trinidad with his wife last week to take up his new role. This is an excellent example of the opportunities available within CEMEX for employees to widen their experience in very different markets on the other side of the world.
Nigel joined RMC Thames Valley almost 30 years ago as a Readymix Shipper at Eversley, near Camberley and soon became a Sales Representative. He helped to establish the new sales office at London, Colney when it moved from Pangbourne and spent the next ten years working in Sales in the West London area. Nigel then decided to move into an operations supervisor role at Kingsmead with responsibility for twelve Plants. He said: “Everyone thought he was mad doing this”, but he wanted to gain people management experience. He greatly enjoyed the next three years working with the operations and maintenance teams, and it proved to be very beneficial in his future career.
In 2005 he became a Multi-Product Sales Manager in Aggregates and Readymix, then when RMC was acquired by CEMEX he was appointed Cluster Manager for Kent, Thames Valley and Surrey – the position he has held up to now. Recently Nigel started to think about broader promotion opportunities and broadening his horizons. In one to one discussions with Marcus Rappensberger he was encouraged to apply for some overseas roles within CEMEX and started to put the feelers out. When he was made aware of the role in Trinidad and Tobago he said he never really thought it would come off, but said he received excellent support and help from Derek O’Donnell, Lex Russell, Marcus and the HR people in both businesses. Throughout the negotiations he said CEMEX was very thorough in facilitating this significant opportunity for his career.
Nigel explained that his new company TCL (Trinidad Cement Ltd) is a cement business with operations on 20 Caribbean islands, and CEMEX has a 20% share in the business. TCL bought RML which is a Readymix business in the West Indies, and on Trinidad and Tobago there are four Readymix Plants and one Quarry. The two businesses have benefitted in the past from help, advice and best practice sharing from other CEMEX expertise, particularly from UK and USA where people speak the same language.
His early tasks include finding a nice place to live for himself and his wife on the island of Trinidad, which is about 50 miles long by 40 miles wide, and is located about six miles east of the Venezuela coast. He said he is now familiar with all the jokes about beach towels and flip-flops, and is looking forward to a whole new chapter in his working life. It is a real win-win situation – CEMEX TCL/RML benefits from Nigel’s long experience in our business, and Nigel has pushed himself out of a comfort zone and into an exciting new challenge employed by the same parent company. It’s a great example to follow – if you want to make a move within CEMEX, talk to your boss and push to make it happen!
Everyone in CEMEX UK sends our best wishes to Nigel for every success in his new role.