Banking veteran Paul De Wachter has been appointed the next CEO of HRD Antwerp, the grading lab that’s a subsidiary of Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC).
De Wachter will start his new role in January 2026. He will succeed Ellen Joncheere, the veteran corporate executive who became the lab’s CEO in 2020. Joncheere’s “contract was not renewed” and she will step down immediately, according to an AWDC statement. Stanley De Belie, the lab’s current chief operations officer, will serve as interim CEO during the transition.
De Wachter began his diamond career in 2002 at Antwerp Diamond Bank, where he rose to the position of senior relationship manager. He joined the National Bank of Fujairah (NBF) in 2018 as head of its Antwerp representative office, and became head of its diamond unit in 2020.
“I am very much looking forward to taking on this new challenge,” De Wachter said in a statement. “I am fully aware of the amount of work that lies ahead, at a time when the international diamond industry is facing major challenges, including the rise of lab-grown diamonds. HRD needs a strong, clear vision and determined leadership to deliver on its role as a trusted partner for its clients. In my role as CEO, I will do everything I can to make that happen.”
In June, HRD Antwerp became the first major lab that plans to stop grading lab-grown diamonds.
(Photo courtesy of Antwerp World Diamond Centre)
- Subscribe to the JCK News Daily
- Subscribe to the JCK Special Report
- Follow JCK on Instagram: @jckmagazine
- Follow JCK on X: @jckmagazine
- Follow JCK on Facebook: @jckmagazine
