Dennis M. Thies, 49, was appointed executive vice president, finance of Southdown. Thies was senior vice president of corporate development for the company and succeeds James L. Persky.

Luc Papillon, chairman of the Canadian Portland Cement Association (CPCA), announced the appointment of J. Bruce McLeod as president of the CPCA. McLeod also will be responsible for integrating the Canadian Cement Council's activities into the CPCA's operations.

Kent D. Jensen was elected senior vice president and chief financial officer by Holnam's board of directors. Jensen joined Holnam as treasurer in 1992 after 17 years with Amoco. He assumed the position of vice president, tax in 1993. In the new position, he will oversee all of Holnam's financial activities, including accounting and control, tax, and treasury responsibilities.

Roberts & Schaefer announced the appointment of Ravji M. Patel to senior vice president and general manager of central operations. James M. Clifford became senior vice president and Donal W. Trice was named as senior vice president and chief financial officer.

Kevin Maehling was promoted to vice president at Ramsey Products, and is responsible for the company's standard product line of bulk weighing, inspection, monitoring and control systems. Tony R. Philip is now vice president of Ramsey's division Icor Products, having been promoted from director, which includes check weighers, metal detectors, and materials handling systems for in-motion processing. Also at Ramsey, Dwight Weber was promoted to vice president overseeing general production.

Kevin Schneider was appointed vice president of sales at GE Capital Railcar Services. In his new position, he will be responsible for all sales activities throughout North America and Mexico.

The engineering design firm of Roberts & Schaefer appointed David Fong and Jack Spicher to senior project managers.