Richemont, the Swiss luxury goods group, has appointed Stanislas de Quercize as president and chief executive officer of the luxury-jewelry retailer Van Cleef & Arpels. He will assume his new role in September. De Quercize has been president and CEO of Cartier North America, also part of Richemont, since 2002. There was no word at press time as to who his replacement will be at Cartier. Michel Patout, acting CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels, will hold that position until de Quercize takes up his duties in September. After that, Patout will continue in his role as its chief financial officer.
Lazare Kaplan International has appointed Debbie Hiss as director of training in the United States.
Hiss has 28 years of experience in the fine-jewelry industry. For the past four years, she held the position of regional director/trade manager for the Diamond Promotion Service. Prior to assuming her role at the DPS, Hiss was the manager of association training at the Gemological Institute of America.
The Gemesis Corp., manufacturer of “cultured” (laboratory grown) stones, has hired Charles A. Meyer as vice president of sales.
He will lead Gemesis’s New York sales and marketing office. Meyer was previously vice president for sales at Lazare Kaplan International, where he also was managing director of Bellataire Diamonds Inc., an LKI subsidiary that manufactures high pressure, high temperature–treated stones. Before joining Bellataire, he served for 20 years as president of Henry Meyer Diamond Co.
Avi Paz was elected president of the Israel Diamond Exchange on Thursday. He replaces Shmuel Schnitzer, who served three consecutive terms as IDE president. Schnitzer, who was elected honorary life president this week at the bourse’s annual general meeting, is also president of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses.
Sheryl Katz has joined the staff of MarketDirect Business Communications, the group that handles communications for many of the world’s diamond and jewelry associations. Katz, formerly a reporter in the Israeli office of Rapaport DiamondReport, and prior to that, the Jerusalem Post, will work as a writer, editor, and communications consultant.