De Beers appoints Nigel Simson as Senior VP Global Sightholder Sales

Nigel Simson is appointed as Senior Vice President of Global Sightholder Sales at De Beers. He will take on the role from Mahiar Borhanjoo who decided not to relocate to Botswana which is part of the migration of De Beers’ London-based Sales activity, slated to complete later this year.

Commenting on his appointment, Mr Simson said “I am delighted to accept this important role and be part of such an exciting new chapter for De Beers and the diamond industry as a whole. Together with the rest of the team, I look forward to working with our Sightholders and producer partners, and building an even stronger platform for shared success in the years to come.”

Mr Simson holds over 30 years of diamond expertise, with four years as Head of Sales in De Beers' South Africa Sightholder Sales, nine years as a Key Account Manager working with Sightholders based in the major international cutting centres and his most recent role at De Beers is as Head of Beneficiation, based in London, where he has been closely involved with Sightholders based in producer countries.

Varda Shine, Executive Vice President of De Beers’ Global Sightholder Sales said, “It’s great to have someone as skilled and experienced as Nigel to lead the Sales team to further success as we move our international sales activities to Botswana. Nigel was the standout candidate for the role”.

She further added regret on Mahiar deciding to leave. Ms. Shine expressed gratitude toMahiar’s contribution as he “brought considerable experience to the role and his ability to form strong, lasting relationships, both internally and externally, has been an invaluable trait in an industry where personal interactions remain so important to success. I would also like to thank Mahiar wholeheartedly for his outstanding contribution to De Beers’ success over the last five years, and wish him every success in his future career.” Mr Borhanjoo will remain with the organisation for the coming months and, in the intervening period, will undertake a detailed handover process with Mr Simson.