Three new heads at De Beers have been appointed to the company’s Executive Committee, adding 75 years of diamond experience. Paul Rowley, Executive Vice President of Global Sightholder Sales, Neil Ventura, Executive Vice President of Auction Sales and Balisi Bonyongo, CEO of Debswana, will join the Committee with immediate effect.

Philippe Mellier, CEO of the De Beers Group welcomed the new heads and mentioned, “Together they have extensive diamond experience and have built reputations as diamond experts, creating value for De Beers and its partners. I look forward to working closely with them as we position De Beers for continued growth across the pipeline”.

Joining De Beers in 1983, Paul Rowley has served various senior roles and also on both the DTC Botswana and Namibia DTC boards and was Acting CEO of DTC Botswana prior to his current role. He also holds previous experience in key account management, rough diamond purchasing in various African diamond producing countries and heading the Global Sightholder Sales Diamond Division.

Neil Ventura joined De Beers in 1989, interacting with both mature and emerging markets, before taking on as CEO of Diamdel (now Auction Sales) in July 2007. From here, he established De Beers as a market leader in the sale of rough diamonds to small, mid-size and large manufacturing, retailing and trading businesses via online auctions.

Balisi Bonyongo joined Debswana in 1993 as a junior Plant Metallurgist, holding several senior positions including the critical role of Commissioning Manager of the Aquarium diamond processing plant at Jwaneng. He also held the position of Corporate Strategy Manager before taking on as Jwaneng General Manager and later Chief Operating Officer of Debswana.