Gareth Penny

Gareth Penny is the former CEO of De Beers Group. He was the prime architect in the change to the De Beers business model, which replaced over 100 years of supply-side management in the rough diamond business, with demand-driven initiatives that have generated significant diamond industry demand growth. Gareth has been instrumental in reshaping the world’s largest diamond company, and also the diamond industry. He led De Beers through its seminal Strategic Review and is a champion of financial transparency, technological innovation, marketing & branding, and – most importantly – ethical accountability, reputation management and product integrity. Gareth was appointed Director of Sales and Marketing of the Diamond Trading Company (London) in 2001, joined the Board of De Beers in 2003, and became Group Managing Director (now Group CEO) of the De Beers Family of Companies in March 2006. In July 2010, Gareth announced his resignation from De Beers. Early in 2009, Gareth was asked to join the Botswana Economic Advisory Council to the President, and in January 2010 he became Chairman of Debswana, the Joint Venture partnership with the Government of Botswana. He is a non-executive Director of the Julius Bär Holding Limited Board, the listed leading, dedicated wealth manager in Switzerland.