David Bouffard, who’s spent 42 years at Signet Jewelers, serving as corporate spokesperson and leading its responsible sourcing initiatives, is departing the company in April of next year.
Around the same time, Bouffard will leave his post as chair of the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), he said in an email sent today to RJC members. Bouffard has chaired the RJC since 2018.
“We are so grateful for all David has done to advance our company and the industry over the past four decades, including our industry affairs and sustainability efforts,” Colleen Rooney, Signet’s chief communications and ESG officer, said in a statement. “We thank David for his decades of service to the company, his many contributions to strategic industry initiatives, and his valued leadership in Signet’s philanthropic efforts. In addition, we have recently welcomed Matt Swibel as our new vice president of sustainability and social impact.”
Bouffard joined Signet in 1981, in field operations management, and eventually became director of sales, merchandising, and advertising. Since 1997, he has served in a variety of vice president roles, focusing on public relations and corporate affairs. Earlier this month he took on his current title, Signet fellow of industry affairs.
In his RJC email, Bouffard said the group’s board will hold a special election in January to choose his successor—who could take over as chair in March—and asked for members to nominate candidates.
“I believe it is important towards ensuring we have a strong slate of diverse candidates nominated from around the world—in gender, race, culture, and other diversity factors,” he wrote. “Let’s think about it—if a woman is voted into the chair, it will be the first female chairperson since the conception of the RJC in 2005.”
Bouffard is a past chair of Jewelers for Children, and he won the American Gem Society’s Triple Zero Award for industry service in 2018.
(Photo courtesy of Signet Jewelers)
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