PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 12, 2025--
PPG (NYSE:PPG) today announced that Adriana Macouzet, vice president, PPG Latin America, and general manager, protective and marine coatings (PMC), Latin America, will retire, effective April 30, 2026. With Macouzet’s retirement, PPG will make the following leadership changes:
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“On behalf of the PPG leadership team, we congratulate Adriana on an outstanding 40-year career with PPG and thank her for her many contributions,” said Tim Knavish, PPG chairman and chief executive officer. “She has been a key leader in driving the development and growth of PPG’s PMC business and PPG’s business throughout Latin America. Adriana is a highly respected leader and has been a central architect in building PPG’s Latin American business over the years. Throughout her four decades with PPG, she has also served as a mentor to many PPG employees, and her leadership and dedication will be missed. We wish Adriana all the best in her well-deserved retirement.
“We also want to congratulate both Jennifer and Javier on their expanded roles and responsibilities. Their continued strong leadership will be key as we maintain our focus on growing our business and serving our customers throughout Latin America and within the PMC business across the Americas.”
Macouzet joined PPG as a paint formulator in Mexico in 1984 and then advanced through automotive coatings roles in pretreatment, operations planning, and sales and marketing before moving to Argentina in 1995 to develop new business in Latin America South. She returned to Mexico in 1998 as account manager for Ford and General Motors before being named sales and marketing manager, automotive coatings, Latin America, in 2005. Macouzet was named director, automotive and industrial coatings, Mexico, in 2008 and then general manager, automotive coatings, Mexico, before being named general manager, Latin America North in 2012. In 2016, she was appointed vice president, Latin America, and general manager, PMC, Latin America. Since then, Macouzet has been providing regional leadership for Latin America overall, excluding PPG Comex, and has direct accountability for the PMC business in the region. A native of Mexico, she earned a chemical engineering degree from La Salle University, Mexico City, and a business administration degree from Michigan State University.
Solcz joined PPG in 2018 as the global segments director, wheel coatings, where she successfully developed and executed the global strategy and delivered strong financial results. In 2020, she was promoted to the Americas general manager for auto parts, where she led the business to achieve record sales and profitability, while driving operational excellence and customer satisfaction. In her current role as vice president, PMC, USCA, Solcz strategically aligns efforts to foster growth and generate real and sustainable value for PPG customers and partners. She studied biochemistry and business at both Goucher College and the University of Windsor, received a CPA license in Ontario, Canada, and achieved a master’s in business administration degree from Lawrence Technological University.
Sosa joined PPG in November 2014 following the company’s acquisition of Comex. He has held several positions of increasing responsibility, including retail experience and design manager, product manager, B2B marketing director and B2B commercial director, where he consistently contributed to the strategic growth of PPG Comex in the region. Sosa was also responsible for the PMC and traffic solutions businesses in Mexico and Central America in his previous role. In his current role as vice president, architectural coatings, Latin America and president, PPG Comex, he is responsible for PPG’s architectural coatings activities in Mexico, Central America and Brazil, going to market through the Comex concessionaires’ network and other distribution channels such as home centers, supermarkets and hardware stores.
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At PPG (NYSE:PPG), we work every day to develop and deliver the paints, coatings and specialty products that our customers have trusted for more than 140 years. Through dedication and creativity, we solve our customers’ biggest challenges, collaborating closely to find the right path forward. With headquarters in Pittsburgh, we operate and innovate in more than 70 countries and reported net sales of $15.8 billion in 2024. We serve customers in construction, consumer products, industrial and transportation markets and aftermarkets. To learn more, visit www.ppg.com.
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Javier Sosa Mejía will expand his responsibilities as president, PPG Latin America, effective January 1, 2026.
Jennifer Solcz will serve as PPG vice president, protective and marine coatings, Americas, which will include USCA and Latin America, effective April 30, 2026.
Adriana Macouzet, vice president, PPG Latin America, and general manager, protective and marine coatings (PMC), Latin America, will retire, effective April 30, 2026.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A senior Kremlin official says that the Russian police and National Guard will remain in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas to oversee the prized industrial region, even if a peace settlement ends the nearly four-year war — a possibility that is likely to be rejected by Ukrainian officials as U.S.-led negotiations drag on.
Moscow will give its blessing to a ceasefire only after Ukraine’s forces have withdrawn from the front line, Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said in comments published Friday in Russian business daily Kommersant.
Ushakov told Kommersant “it’s entirely possible that there won’t be any troops (in the Donbas), either Russian or Ukrainian” in a postwar scenario.
But he said that “there will be the National Guard, our police, everything necessary to maintain order and organize life.”
For months, American negotiators have tried to navigate the demands of each side as U.S. President Donald Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into a major obstacle over who keeps Ukrainian territory that Russian forces have occupied so far.
Since Moscow’s 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea and the seizure of territory in the east by Russia-backed separatists later that year, as well as land taken after the full-blown invasion was launched on Feb. 24, 2022, Russia has captured about 20% of its neighbor.
Ukraine says its constitution doesn’t allow it to surrender land. Russia, which illegally annexed Donetsk and three other regions illegally in 2022, says the same. Ushakov said that “no matter what the outcome (of peace talks), this territory (the Donbas) is Russian Federation territory.”
On Thursday, Trump compared the negotiations to a very complex real estate deal. He said that he wants to see more progress in talks before sending envoys to possible meetings with European leaders over the weekend.
In October Trump said the Donbas region will have to be "cut up" to end the war.
In recent months, Russia’s army has made a determined push to gain control of all parts of Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk, which together make up the valuable Donbas region.
Its slow slog across the Ukrainian countryside, using its significant advantage in troop numbers in a corrosive war of attrition, has been costly in terms of casualties and losses of armor. Although outnumbered, Ukrainian defenders have held firm in many areas and counterattacked in others.
Ukrainian forces said Friday that they had recaptured several settlements and neighborhoods near the city of Kupiansk in the northeastern Kharkiv region, following a monthslong operation aimed at reversing Russian advances.
Kupiansk has in recent months been one of the most closely contested sectors of the around 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line.
Ukrainian units gradually cut off Russian supply routes into Kupiansk starting on Sept. 22, and regained control of the villages of Kindrashivka and Radkivka, as well as several northern districts of the city, according to a statement by the National Guard’s Khartia Corps posted on Facebook.
Fighting is ongoing in central Kupiansk now, where more than 200 Russian soldiers are encircled, the statement said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video of himself standing on the road into Kupiansk on Friday. Explosions could be heard in the background as he spoke.
“Today, it is critically important to achieve results on the battlefield so that Ukraine can achieve results in diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said in the video, praising his troops on Ukraine’s Ground Forces Day.
Russian officials made no immediate comment, and the Ukrainians statements couldn't be independently verified.
At the end of October, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukrainian troops in Kupiansk were surrounded and offered to negotiate their surrender. He said that a media visit to the area would prove it.
Ukraine also has developed its long-range strike capabilities using domestically produced weapons to disrupt Russia's war machine.
Its Special Operations Forces, or SSO, said Friday that an operation in the Caspian Sea struck two Russian vessels carrying military equipment and arms.
The ships named Kompozitor Rakhmaninov and Askar-Saridzha are under U.S. sanctions for transporting arms between Russia and Iran, the SSO said in a statement on social media. It didn't say what weapons it used in its attack.
A Ukrainian drone attack wounded seven people, including a child, in the Russian city of Tver, acting Gov. Vitaly Korolev said Friday. Falling drone debris struck an apartment bulding in the city, which lies northwest of Moscow, Korolev said.
Russia’s air defenses destroyed 90 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.
Russian drones struck a residential area of Pavlohrad, in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, killing one person and wounding four others, the head of the local military administration, Vladyslav Haivanenko, wrote on Telegram Friday.
Ukraine’s southern Odesa region came under a large-scale drone attack overnight, according to regional chief Oleh Kiper. The attack damaged energy infrastructure, he said. More than 90,000 people were without electricity on Friday morning, Deputy Energy Minister Roman Andarak said.
Ukraine’s air force said that Russia launched 80 drones across the country during the night.
Dasha Litvinova reported from Tallinn, Estonia.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during a call with military leaders on the Ukraine battlefield situation at the Kremlin in Moscow, on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
