Goodbye and thank you for having provided me with the opportunity to serve and give back to our industry and beyond. It is an industry I feel extraordinarily privileged to be involved in, handling the most extraordinary mineral I know. Diamonds evoke powerful emotions in almost every single individual who owns or aspires to own them.
June had been scheduled to be a hectic travel period for both the WDC and KP. Then the COVID-19 global pandemic struck.
More than four months into the COVID-19 crisis, it is difficult and most probably premature to gauge the impact of the global epidemic on the rough diamond industry and trade, and more specifically on the artisanal mining sector, where information is scarce and largely anecdotal.
The time to act is now. The reality is that we are not doing enough. In fact, according to the World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Gender Gap report, it will take 257 years to close the economic gender gap.
What was once known as Ashaktashram Hospital is today the Smt Rasilaben Sevantilal Shah Venus Hospital, named for the spouse of the founder of one of India’s largest diamond companies, Venus Jewel.
In one short month the world has changed in very dramatic ways. In mid-February I was enjoying some golf in the warmer climate of the southern U.S. There was very little talk of even the seasonal flu, let alone COVID-19, although my 21-year-old son managed to get Influenza B from his college roommates.
After 32 years of practically residing in airports around the world and earning a PhD in business lounges, I am finally homebound. Yes, not by choice and I wish under different circumstances, but that’s life.
Our industry has lost, far too soon, one of its most treasured gems. Didier Giard was an individual who managed to exemplify the very best of what we in the gem and jewelry community seek to find within ourselves – a sense of history and tradition, an unrelenting search for knowledge and understanding, an appreciation of equality and responsibility, and a commitment to public service.
Notre industrie a perdu bien trop tôt une de ses gemmes les plus précieuses. Didier Giard était un homme qui réussit à personnifier le meilleur de ce que notre communauté de la joaillerie et des pierres précieuses aspire à trouver en chacun: un sens de l’Histoire et de la tradition, une poursuite incessante du savoir et de la compréhension, une appréciation de l’égalité et de la responsabilité et un engagement envers le service public.
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