I am several months late with this news, but it is still worth posting. Alex Yearsley, a principal “campaigner” at Global Witness, one of the first organizations to link diamonds and conflict, has left the group after twelve years. He now works for “business intelligence” company ProVen.
In the first few years of the “conflict diamond” issue, Alex was a constant industry presence, and impressed many as an energetic, super-well-informed and generally fair advocate for his point of view. It was pretty stunning to see Global Witness grow from a small nine-person outfit to a far more high-profile group that was eventually name-checked in the “Blood Diamond” movie. Along with NGO colleagues, Ian Smillie, formerly of Partnership Africa Canada, and Global Witness founder Charmian Gooch, it is difficult to imagine having a Kimberley Process without him. For that, the industry owes him a debt of gratitude.
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