De Beers Group announced on Wednesday that it’s named corporate veteran Sarah Kuijlaars its chief financial officer. Effective Sept. 1, she will join the De Beers Group board and executive committee.

Her appointment follows the April 2 resignation announcement of current CFO Nimesh Patel, who will leave De Beers Group on July 26 for his new post as CFO and executive director of Spirax-Sarco Engineering.

Kuijlaars, who is new to the diamond world, was previously the CFO of Arcadis NV, a leading global design and engineering consultancy listed on the Euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Prior to this, she was deputy CFO at Rolls Royce Holdings and held a number of senior financial leadership roles during a 25-year career at Royal Dutch Shell. Kuijlaars is also a nonexecutive director at Aggreko, an international provider of mobile modular power, temperature control, and energy services.

She has a mathematics degree from Oxford University, is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), and an associate member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers. Throughout her career, she’s  worked in several countries, including Nigeria, Russia, Brazil and in the Middle East.

“I’m very pleased to be joining De Beers Group and the diamond industry,” she said in a prepared statement. “I look forward to working with the leadership team and colleagues and partners around the world to help deliver the company’s strategy.”

Bruce Cleaver, CEO of De Beers Group, added in the same statement, “Sarah is a proven leader and has a strong track record built with a number of world-class multinational businesses. I’m delighted that Sarah is joining the De Beers Group board and executive committee, and look forward to working closely with her as we continue to deliver our transformation agenda.”

Top: Sarah Kuijlaars, De Beers’ new chief financial officer, effective Sept. 1 (photo courtesy of De Beers Group)

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Emili Vesilind

JCK Senior Editor