Eli Yitzhakoff

Eli Yitzhakoff is a member of the family that was at the forefront of the diamond industry in the United States and Israel. Over the years, he has been a partner in J. Izhakoff & Sons, a diamond manufacturing and import / export company based in New York on 5th Avenue, 580.

In 1979, he first became a member of the board of directors of the Diamond Dealers Club of New York, the largest diamond exchange in the United States, and in the following years held leadership positions, including as chairman of the board.

In 1986, he was elected General Treasurer of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses , a global organization that unites diamond exchanges around the world, and was appointed a member of its Executive Council.

In January 1990, he was elected president of the New York Diamond Dealers Club and then formed and became the first chairman of the Diamond Industry Steering Committee, the parent organization of the four diamond trading associations. ^[one]

At the World Diamond Congress in London in May 1991, Mr. Yitzhakoff was unanimously elected President of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses ( WFDB). He was unanimously re-elected for a second term at the next World Diamond Congress in Antwerp (Belgium) in June 1993. At the World Diamond Congress in Tel Aviv, Israel, in May 1996, he was unanimously re-elected President of the WFDB for an unprecedented third term. ^[2]

As president of the WFDB, he played a decisive role in expanding the geography of the federation and oversaw the creation of new diamond exchanges in Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, China, Russia and India.

In June 1995, Mr. Yitzhakoff played a key role in organizing the international diamond summit, which first revealed to the whole world the scale of the Russian diamond industry. It began with a conference in Moscow and continued with a tour of the numerous deposits in the Republic of Sakha, during which the president of the republic, Mikhail Efimovich Nikolaev, awarded Mr. Yitzhakoff with the insignia of Nicholas Oppenheimer and Gary Ralph (De Beers) and Maurice Templeman (Lazare Kaplan International). ^[3]

At the end of his third term as president of the WFDB, at the World Diamond Congress in Bangkok (Thailand) in July 1998, he was unanimously elected WFDB Honorary Life President.

Due to the diamond crisis in Africa in the late 1990s, industry leaders asked Mr. Yitzhakoff to head a new organization that would coordinate efforts to end the diamond trade to finance a civil conflict. The organization was founded at the World Diamond Congress in Antwerp (Belgium) in July 2000 and was named the World Diamond Council ( WDC ), Mr. Yitzhakoff was unanimously elected its Founding President. ^[4]

Over the next three years, Mr. Yitzhakoff worked with representatives of government organizations and civil society to create an international system that would regulate the flow of rough diamonds through the supply chain in order to exclude the presence of goods from conflict zones. The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme , which it is considered to be the author, was adopted and implemented in 2003 and then approved by the UN Security Council. It is recognized that, thanks to the Kimberley Process, the number of conflict diamonds decreased from 4% to 0.1% of the total.

In November 2006, Mr. Yitzhakoff addressed the G8 ministers in Moscow with a report on the Kimberley Process and its successes as a possible model for countering global terrorism. ^[5]

The 7th annual meeting of the World Diamond Council, held in July 2010 in St. Petersburg, marked an important achievement - the Kimberley Process was able to reach a consensus that allowed the resumption of the export of rough diamonds from the Marange diamond fields in Zimbabwe, thus allowing a crisis that could paralyze the diamond trade. Mr. Yitzhakoff invited the Kimberley Process to hold a mini-summit in St. Petersburg simultaneously with the World Diamond Council in an attempt to reach an agreement on the Marange. As a result, the Summit was visited by a delegation of senior officials from the Government of Zimbabwe, including the Minister of Mining of Zimbabwe, Obert Moses Mpofu and the Minister of Justice of Zimbabwe, Johanne Tomama, as well as the delegation of the US Department of State led by Susan Page, Susan Page Deputy Secretary of State. ^[6]

On the eve of the annual meeting of the World Diamond Council in St. Petersburg, Zimbabwe released Farai Maguwu, a local human rights activist who was accused of disseminating false information defaming the state regarding Marange deposits. During the meeting, Mr. Yitzhakoff publicly called on the Zimbabwean Minister of Justice to drop the charges against Mr. Maguwu, which ultimately happened in October 2010. Later in the book about this period, Mr. Maguwu thanked Mr. Yitzhakoff for helping to free him. and for convincing the Zimbabwean authorities to drop charges against him. ^[7]

When he resigned as President of the World Diamond Council in 2013, he was elected Honorary Life President of this organization.

In 2014, Mr. Yitzhakoff was invited to participate in the development of a project in the Republic of Panama, which aimed to create the first Latin American shopping center with diamonds, colored stones and jewelry. Called the World Jewelry Hub , it is also the headquarters of the first recognized diamond exchange in Latin America, the World Jewelry & Diamond Center in Panama (World Jewelry & Diamond Hub, Panama) . ^[8]

Mr. Yitzhakoff played an important role in the creation of the Dubai Diamond Exchange in 2004. He is also a member of the board of directors of several other organizations and holds the title of Honorary Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Diamond Industry, New York, USA; Honorary President of the Diamond Dealers Club of New York; Honorary Chairman of the Bangkok Diamond and Gem Exchange, Bangkok (Thailand).

At the 2006 CIBJO congress in Vancouver, Canada, Mr. Yitzhakoff was named Honorary Life President of the World Jewelery Confederation (CIBJO ) .

In addition to many other awards and titles, he is the holder of the Order of Leopold, which was awarded to him by the King of Belgium, ^[9] has the Rapaport Award for Corporate Social Responsibility, ^[10] t Honorary Israeli Diamond Award industry (Israel diamond dial industry dignitary award), ^[11] an award from the New York diamond industry for their achievements (Lifetime Achievement award), the title diamanters year by the World Federation of diamond Bourses, the Medal of Honor the Israel diamond Institute, the award of Andrea Palladio for K rporativnuyu and social responsibility (by Andrea Palladio is International, Jewellery Award for Corporate and List Social Responsibility), ^[12] a special award from the President of Sakha Republic (Yakutia), from the Government of Thailand and on the Government of South Africa ^{[13] [14]} and from the Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DMCC). ^[fifteen]

• Interview with Rough & Polished (July 2015)
• Interview with JCK Magazine (July 2013)
• Video: Israel Diamond Institute Honors World Diamond Council President Eli Izhakoff (May 2013)
• Video: Interview with Israel Diamond Industry Portal (April 2013)
• Video: Dubai Diamond Conference Honors World Diamond Council President Eli Izhakoff (March 2013)
• US State Department announcement: US and EU Officials Meet With Diamond Industry Leaders To Discuss Government-Industry Engagement (Nov. 17, 2011)
• ״ Diamond Traders Act on Africa War Issue ״ , New York Times, Sep. 8, 2000