Diane Warga-Arias, a consultant for the Diamond Promotion Service and the Diamond Trading Company, has signed on as a consultant for the Gem Certification and Appraisal Lab.

GCAL is owned by Collector’s Universe—a publicly traded company that authenticates coins, stamps, and other high-value properties. Soon after acquiring GCAL, Michael Haynes, CU’s CEO, and Don Palmieri, GCAL’s founder and president, asked Warga-Arias to bring her communications skills and her strategic business acumen to the gem certification and grading laboratory. In late January, Warga-Arias accepted the invitation.

“Diane Warga-Arias is one of the most knowledgeable, experienced consultants in the diamond business and we are pleased she now includes GCAL in her client roster,” Haynes said.

“GCAL has offered grading accuracy guarantees since 2001,” Warga-Arias said. “That’s a first—with no second yet—for the jewelry industry. What made GCAL attractive to CU also made it attractive to me.”

Warga-Arias also said that being part of a publicly traded company is an added benefit in the diamond-grading business.

“Publicly traded companies bring greater transparency and accountability to the markets they serve,” Warga-Arias says. “Product integrity and public trust will remain key objectives for our changing diamond industry.”

GCAL is based in New York’s Diamond District, and now owns the Gemprint diamond identification and registration system, which according to Warga-Arias, will be offered exclusively through GCAL. “That means it can build the world’s largest database for polished diamonds,” she says.

Another GCAL branding strength is the lab’s role in direct assessment technology with its acquisition of Diamond Profile light-performance system. “As cutting has become a major factor in evaluating diamond beauty, brilliance, and symmetry ratings have become as important as color and clarity ratings,” Warga-Arias said. “GCAL is known and respected for these light-performance ratings.”

Warga-Arias will lead GCAL in sales training and consumer education. “GCAL sells pedigrees not diamonds,” she said. “I look forward to helping our industry learn how GCAL will help promote trust in diamonds.”

Warga-Arias will also help lead GCAL in its plan to become an international brand in the diamond-grading business.

“We see healthy competition to build brand awareness in jewelry but not gemology,” Warga-Arias said. “GCAL ratings could become the most prestigious and trusted in no time at all.”

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