GIA Announces New Board Members

Carlsbad Calif.--The Gemological Institute of America announced new and departing board members at its recent board of governors meeting.

The three new board members are Karen Evans, Lawrence Ma and Robert Andrew “Andy” Johnson.

Evans comes from a background in IT implementation and cyber security and worked for the U.S. government for more than 25 years. She currently is the national director of the U.S. Cyber Challenge and a partner at KE&T Partners.

Ma has more than 45 years of experience in the diamond industry and has served in several senior roles in trade organizations. He is the chief executive of Lee Heng Diamond Group and founding president of the Diamond Federation of Hong Kong.

Johnson hails from a retail and commercial real estate background and is the CEO of Diamond Cellar Holdings.

As Evans, Ma and Johnson join the board, three members depart. They are John A. Green, president and CEO of Lux Bond & Green, who was executive chair of the board from 2014 to 2016 and chair of the laboratory and research committee from 2013 to 2017; James P. Shinehouse, managing partner of Atlantic Financial Advisory Partners, who served as executive vice chair from 2015 to 2017 and head of the audit committee from 2010 to 2017; and Ephraim Zion, managing director of Dehres Ltd., who served on the Laboratory and Research and Executive Committees.

Green, Shinehouse and Zion all joined the board in 2007.

GIA President and CEO Susan M. Jacques commented in a press release, “Karen Evans, Lawrence Ma and Andy Johnson bring expertise, insight and deep knowledge in areas that are vital to continued success in today’s dynamic global market. They will undoubtedly make a significant contribution as members of the GIA Board of Governors as we work to further GIA’s public benefit mission. We thank the departing governors for their many years of wise counsel and dedicated service.”

The week prior to the board meeting, the GIA’s global research team held their annual meeting at the Carlsbad headquarters.

Attendees, who included GIA researchers, consulting scientists, fellows from the Richard T. Liddicoat Postdoctoral Research Fellowship program and GIA governors and executives, discussed developments in instrumentation, methods of detecting diamond treatments and synthetics, how to determine the origin of colored gemstones and pearl structures over the three-day gathering.