Alrosa Taps Industry Veteran Rebecca Foerster to Head US Operations

Moscow—Alrosa announced it has appointed Rebecca Foerster as president of Alrosa USA.

In her new role, Foerster will be involved in all aspects of work at the diamond miner’s U.S. office in New York. She will be responsible for the development of polished diamond sales and customer service.

Foerster most recently served as the executive vice president of strategic planning and marketing at Leo Schachter Diamonds in New York, a company she joined in 2014.

Prior to that, she was vice president of Rio Tinto’s U.S. representative office.

For nearly a decade before, she served as vice president of marketing for Frederick Goldman Inc., specializing in the bridal market and brand development.

Prior to entering the jewelry industry, Foerster worked at large advertising agencies and corporations like Revlon, Unilever and Benckiser in strategic marketing and branding positions.

“The United States is the world’s largest market for diamond jewelry consumption. For this reason, special requirements are placed on the person who will represent Alrosa’s interests there,” Alrosa Deputy CEO Yury Okoemov said in a statement.

“Ms. Foerster has a wealth of experience in companies that represent almost all parts of the diamond pipeline, from diamond mining to diamond jewelry sales. She knows the specifics of the diamond business and is well aware of American market needs. We are certainly glad that Ms. Foerster has joined our team. We believe that her experience and expertise will best help to solve our U.S. company’s tasks.”

Alrosa opened its New York office in 2006. They stopped operations there in 2016 for “organizational reasons,” the company said, but resumed them again last year, when two rough diamond auctions were held in the office.

A company spokesperson said they will decide together with Foerster how many people will work there.

This year, the diamond miner said it plans to hold four rough diamond auctions in New York and “significantly increase” its office activity in selling its own polished diamonds.