De Beers North America Downsizes Operations

By Rob Bates | January 25, 2023

De Beers Brands North America, which oversees the local operations of the De Beers Forevermark brand and De Beers Jewellers retail chain, has cut staff at its Stamford, Conn., office.

“[Last] week, we announced several layoffs in a reshaping of the U.S. team to align roles and responsibilities with our global De Beers organization to meet our business goals as we continue to evolve our ‘One De Beers’ plan,” a De Beers Brands North America spokesperson tells JCK by email. “This is a business decision that will help the organization function more effectively, and we thank the individuals affected for their service and contributions to De Beers.”

Among the people who are leaving are Lisa Cochin, director of retail innovation and trade marketing; director of education Stacy Nordlund; and several salespeople.

Cochin has worked for De Beers in various capacities for more than 25 years, starting at the De Beers account at J. Walter Thompson in 1997. Nordlund has worked at De Beers since 2017. She previously worked at John Hardy and Majorica.

De Beers is also postponing its Forevermark partners forum this year, because of a scheduling conflict, it says.

“Due to the initial dates overlapping with Watches and Wonders Geneva, a decision was made at the end of last year to postpone [the] forum to a later date,” says the spokesperson. “As of now, there will be no forum in the first half of this year, and we will revisit over the coming months whether there will be a forum in 2023.”

Earlier this month, Charles Stanley, who has headed Forevermark USA (now De Beers Brands North America) since 2010, announced he was retiring. Céline Assimon, the CEO of De Beers Jewellers and De Beers Forevermark, will run its North American operations from De Beers’ headquarters in London until a permanent successor is found.

In related news, De Beers’ industrial diamond division, Element Six, has named Siobhán Duffy its new CEO. She takes over from Walter Huehn, who announced he was leaving in December.

Duffy is 30-year veteran of Element Six. She currently serves as its executive director of sales and marketing. As part of her new role, Duffy will join the De Beers Group executive committee.