15 September 2016 — Ash Grove Cement Company, the largest American-owned producer of cement and the sixth largest producer of cement in the United States, has appointed a new communications director and technical center director.
Lisa Brady Ketteler has joined the company as its communications director in the company’s headquarters in Overland Park, Kan. In her new role, Ketteler will direct internal and external communications for the company and its subsidiaries.
Jacqueline Clark, APR, Fellow PRSA, continues to direct federal, state and local government relations and community affairs for Ash Grove and all its subsidiaries.
Most recently Ketteler served as manager, transformation communications, for Sprint. Prior to that, she served in roles of increasing responsibility for Sprint, including as manager of corporate communications, executive and internal communications and campus communications.
Ketteler earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas in Lawrence.
Chengqing (Cheng) Qi has joined Ash Grove as its technical center director, also in the company’s headquarters. In his new role, Qi, who has a doctorate in civil engineering (with an emphasis on cement and concrete materials), oversees operations of the company’s technical center, a world-class laboratory for research and testing of aggregates, cement, concrete and lime. The technical center was established in the 1960s to offer customized technical service, product development, quality control and testing for our customers across various business lines, and support the company’s cement manufacturing plants.
Greg Barger, an American Concrete Institute (ACI) Fellow and Ash Grove’s long-time technical center director, will retire in 2017. Barger will continue in this role and work alongside Qi until the transition is complete.
Most recently, Qi served as technical manager for a cement manufacturer, where he was responsible for troubleshooting cement, concrete and aggregate performance; testing materials and evaluating new material sources. Prior to that, he was with Professional Service Industries, Inc., in Fairfax, Va., as materials engineer and petrographer.
Qi has authored or contributed to more than 20 technical papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. Qi is a member of multiple technical committees for the ACI and ASTM International, an international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems and services.
Qi earned a doctorate in civil engineering from Purdue University’s School of Civil Engineering in West Lafayette, Ind., and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in materials science and engineering from Southeast University in Nanjing, China.