Andrew Rickard Takes Over at Jewelers Board of Trade

By Rob Bates | May 23, 2025

Andrew Rickard (pictured), who spent over 20 years as executive vice president of RDI Diamonds, has left that position to become president of the Jewelers Board of Trade.

Rickard started his new job on May 19. He tells JCK he will mostly work remotely from his home in Rochester, N.Y., though he plans to spend several days a month at JBT’s headquarters in Providence, R.I.

Last week, JBT sent out a release announcing that Jeff Corey had been elected its chair and Rickard would serve as vice chair.

That statement reflected decisions made in January, Rickard says—but now that he’s been named the group’s president, he’s resigned from its board of directors.

Richard Katz, senior vice president of Richline, has taken Rickard’s seat on the board, which will pick a new vice chair when it meets in mid-June. (Corey remains chairman.) Rickard had served on the JBT board for five years.

As JBT president, he succeeds Erich Jacobs, who had headed the organization since 2019. Jacobs will stay with JBT as vice president of information technology.

“There’s still a lot of technological challenges, and we want him to focus on that,” says Rickard.

The new president intends to serve as the “public face” of JBT, he says.

“We are still a very relevant and essential part of the trade, but I think we could be more visible,” Rickard says. “I’m going to make sure that I’m out there talking about JBT. We need to be more visible, not just at educational events and shows, but in New York, in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, all the places that have jewelry markets.”

He also expects to “roll out some changes that are going to make JBT a little bit more transparent and a little bit easier to work with.”

(Photo courtesy of JBT)