At a presentation to staff Thursday, Gareth Penny, managing director of the Diamond Trading Company, announced his new executive team. Penny notes that the new team represents five nationalities and more than 200 years of accumulated experience within the DTC. The new team is as follows:

Des Cavanagh – purchasing director
Cavanagh joined the DTC in 1977 as a diamond sorter and valuer. He has held a variety of positions with the De Beers Group with executive responsibilities in the Sales department. He has had close involvement with all the main diamond cutting centers and is currently the Managing Director for the Diamdel group of companies.

Brian McDonald – sorting director
McDonald joined DTC in 1970 as a diamond sorter. In 1981, as the Jwaneng mine came on stream, he set up the sorting operations in London and then took this team over to Botswana. Following a stint as general manager at BDVC he returned to London in 1996 as director of sorting.

Varda Shine – sales director
Shine came to the DTC in 1997 after working for 14 years at Diamdel Israel. Since joining the DTC she has worked in most areas of the Diamond Division and in the last few years she has been heavily involved in projects directly related to the implementation of the DTC’s new strategic plan.

Stephen Lussier – marketing director
Lussier joined the DTC as the marketing director for the US and Canada in 1985 from NW Ayer, the advertising agency, in New York. He served as director for the Asia-Pacific region before becoming executive director of Marketing in 2002. Lussier will serve as Gareth’s deputy in London.

Rosalind Kainyah – external relations director
Kainyah qualified as a barrister in 1988 and joined the DTC in 2002 as the company’s commercial lawyer. She has also advised other De Beers Group companies on matters of corporate governance, the legal implications of proposed strategic projects and on public relations. Prior to joining the DTC, she was an environmental lawyer advising UK government departments and agencies on environmental policy and legislation. She also worked briefly as an environmental lawyer for Anglo American Corporation of South Africa.

Leon Smith – human resources director
Smith joined DTC in February 2004 from De Beers’ head office in Johannesburg. He joined De Beers in 1990 from Anglo American Corporation’s Gold Division. Following a variety of different HR positions in a number of De Beers mines in South Africa, Smith transferred to the head office where he was involved in a range of strategic human resources transformation initiatives, including the organizational work stream responsible for the restructuring of De Beers Consolidated Mines into a distinct South African mining company.

Mike Page – finance director
Page joined the DTC in 1988 as financial controller. After being seconded by De Beers to various countries in Africa, including three years as group financial manager with Debswana, he returned to the DTC in 1998 as Manager of the Finance Department. He is a member of the Associate Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Martin Cooper – research & development director
Cooper joined the DTC R&D department in 1978. He has a BSC in Physics and and MSc in Materials Science from London and Bristol universities respectively. He is a specialist in diamond and laser physics.

Alan Campbell – pricing and supply chain control director
Campbell joined the DTC in 1980 and spent seven years as a negotiator for De Beers’ southern African production. He established De Beers’ representative office in Moscow and stayed for four years as the DTC’s resident diamond expert, participating in contractual negotiations with Alrosa and the Russian government. He joined the DTC sales department in 1996 and as one of the architects of Supplier of Choice, he devised the “Policyholder Statement” documentation. As head of sales planning, Campbell has overhauled the DTC’s distribution process, conceiving and implementing the ITO system, which is the client selection and allocation process that underpins DTC’s Supplier of Choice strategy.

“We have every confidence this team will provide the leadership we will need to meet the demands of the next few years, Penny said, during his staff presentation. “We may work in the DTC but we are all part of one organization focused on the mining and marketing of natural gem diamonds.”

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