Trépanier Named Managing Director, Southern Africa
Marie-Josée Trépanier, who has an extensive background in international management and law, has been named managing director of GIA Southern Africa (South Africa and Botswana).

Marie-Josée Trépanier, GIA's new managing director of Southern Africa. GIA file photo

Working in coordination with GIA corporate management, Trépanier will be responsible for providing on-site project management and in-country guidance for the setup of new facilities and support functions for Southern Africa and similar future projects. Located initially in Dubai, she will also oversee various business development projects.

Trépanier served most recently as chief executive officer for Polygon DMCC in Dubai, where she expanded the company's presence in Dubai, Mumbai, Hong Kong and China and coordinated all operations in the Middle Eastern, Asian and North American offices.

Her background includes expertise in due diligence, market research, strategy and business planning. She holds an LLM in international business law from the London School of Economics, an LLB in law from the University of Montreal, and has served as a member of Team Canada Missions to China and Indonesia.

"Marie-Josée will work with a highly experienced international GIA operations team, and we are looking forward to having her join us," Baker said. "Her strong communications skills, solid professionalism and ethics have earned her the respect of colleagues around the world. She will substantially further GIA's ability to expand and fulfill our global mission of protecting the public trust in gems and jewelry."

Johannesburg Lab Now Open
GIA South Africa, the Institute's new Laboratory in Johannesburg, officially opened for business Feb. 21. Tom Moses, senior vice president, GIA Laboratory and Research, said launching the Lab in Johannesburg has been a top priority for the Institute.

"GIA is moving quickly to bring its services to our global clients," Moses said. The Lab will initially provide grading for diamonds from 0.15 carats up to 1.99 carats, and is introducing a new diamond fee schedule to reflect current GIA fees as converted to the South African rand currency.

The GIA Lab in Johannesburg will accept any size diamond, colored stone or pearl from clients in the region. For any service other than the Diamond Dossier report, items can be delivered to the Lab and will then be sent to one of GIA's other Labs for service and returned to Johannesburg for customer pickup. GIA has also been granted a VAT exemption so these services will not be subject to the traditional fee for shipping stones outside of South Africa.

"GIA is very excited to begin participating as fully as we can in the industry in this region, and will eventually offer classes, seminars, scholarships and other aspects of the Institute here as well," Moses said.

The mailing address is: P.O. Box 1756, Houghton, 2041, South Africa. The general phone number is (011) 27 11 334-2744, and the fax number is (011) 27 11 334-0932.