Bruce Cleaver will join Gemfields’ Board as Chair and Independent Non-Executive Director on 1 July 2024. Bruce will also become Chair of the Nomination Committee.
Bruce’s reputation as a preeminent leader is well documented and he brings considerable experience of mining gemstones in Africa and marketing them internationally. Bruce was previously Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chair of De Beers Group, the world’s leading diamond company.
Martin Tolcher, the outgoing Chair, commented:“After 15 years as a member of Gemfields’ Board and approaching 5 years as Chair, the time has come for me to step away from the Company in order to bolster Board independence. I am truly delighted to have such a remarkable successor in Bruce and am confident that Gemfields will go from strength to strength under his stewardship.”
Bruce Cleaver, the incoming Chair, commented:“First and most importantly, I would like to convey my thanks and congratulations to Martin for his significant contribution to Gemfields, both as a Board member since 2008 and as Chair since 2019. He has played an invaluable role from Gemfields’ humble beginnings to it being, the world’s leading coloured gemstone company.
“Gemfields is a unique and extraordinary business, one that has taken a fragmented and fairly informal industry to considerable sophistication as the first consistent supplier of significant
quantities of coloured gemstones in a responsible and transparent manner. The parallels with De Beers’ origins and how consistent and reliable supply can deliver remarkable industry growth and positive contributions to communities, are clear to all. The coloured gemstone market has long- transcended the arrival of their lab-grown counterparts, with lab-grown rubies having been around for more than 120 years.
“I am excited and enthused to take on the role of Chair of Gemfields’ Board and look forward to working with Sean, David and the Gemfields team as we prepare the Company for its next stage of growth, including by way of the construction of a new processing plant – tripling throughput capacity – at the world’s leading ruby mine, MRM, and which is on schedule for completion during the first half of 2025.”
