The Board of Directors of the Moscow Diamond Bourse elected Lev Polyakov as its new chairman and also appointed him as president of the bourse. He replaces Grigory Rabinovich who resigned from the same two positions.

Following his election during a special session of the board of directors on June 21, Polyakov resigned as general director of the bourse. The board appointed Anatoly Sitnikov as the new general director. Alex Popov was elected as a new member of the Board of Directors, and was placed in charge of the international relations of the bourse.

Polyakov was born in South Russia into a family of spaceship constructors. He graduated from the History Department of Moscow State University in 1982 and in 1985 with doctorate degrees in History and Social Sciences. From 1987 to 1991 he headed and participated an archeological excavation in the Bukhara area of Uzbekistan for the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1997, he was appointed as the commercial director of the French Radio Network “Nostalgie,” and later was named director of the Russian Program of Wolfson Foundation. Since 1999, Polyakov has served as a director of various investment projects in Russia, and he was a founder and the first general director of the Moscow Diamond Bourse, which was created in 2005. Polyakov is active member of the Russian Jewish Congress and other public organizations. He serves as advisor to the chairman of the Upper House of the Russian Parliament.

JCK