Board of Directors

Ian Smillie (Chairman)

Ian Smillie was a founder of the Canadian NGO, Inter Pares, and was Executive Director of CUSO. He has worked on projects with the Humanitarianism and War Project at Tufts University (now the Feinstein International Center) since 1997 and was an adjunct professor at Tulane University from 1998 to 2001. As a development consultant he has worked for many Canadian, American and European organizations. His latest books are Managing for Change: Leadership, Strategy and Management in Asian NGOs (with John Hailey, Earthscan, 2001) and The Charity of Nations: Humanitarian Action in a Calculating World (with Larry Minear, Kumarian, 2004). Ian Smillie is Research Coordinator on Partnership Africa Canada’s ‘Diamonds and Human Security Project’ and is a participant in the 45-government ‘Kimberley Process’ which has developed and is managing a global certification system to halt the traffic in ‘blood diamonds’. He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2003.

Dr. Muzong Kodi (Vice Chairman)

Muzong Kodi, holds a PhD in African History from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA. He started his professional career as an academic and taught at the University of Lubumbashi in the DRC from 1976 to 1979 and the University of Nairobi in Kenya from 1979 to 1983. From 1983 to 1993, he was Director of Publications at the African Centre for Monetary Studies in Dakar, Senegal. He then worked for international non-governmental organizations, including Amnesty International (as Director of International Development, from 1994 to 2002) and Transparency International (as Regional Director for Africa and the Middle East, from 2002 to 2005). He is currently an Associate Fellow of the Africa Programme of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) where he coordinates the British Congo Forum and focuses his research and consultancy work on governance, anti-corruption, human rights and civil society organizations in Africa.

Ray Simmons (Treasurer)

Ray Simmons is a founding director and President of the Foundation for Environmental Security and Sustainability (FESS). He holds an undergraduate degree in oceanography/physics from the U.S. Naval Academy and a Master’s of Science degree in physical oceanography from the Florida State University. Mr. Simmons is a noted environmental scientist, and prior to FESS, worked extensively in both the public and private sector in the field of environmental security, including assignments as an oceanography officer in the United States Navy, where he served in a number of scientific, operational, and policy tours, including Executive Assistant to the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Director of the multi-agency United States National Ice Center; U.S. Department of Defense lead to the Environmental Working Group of the U.S.-Russia Gore/Chernomyrdin Commission; and as a Brookings Institute Fellow in the Office of the Majority Leader of the United States Senate. Mr. Simmons has directed and participated in a number of international programs and studies, consulted widely for the U.S. government on policy and implementation issues, and authored a number of papers and lectured widely on the subject of environmental and natural resources security.

Simon Gilbert (Secretary)

Simon Gilbert has been with the De Beers Group for over 25 years, initially joining the rough diamond division where he worked in all diamond departments. He later joined the Outside Purchasing Department as a diamond buyer in Zaire from 1988 until 1991. From 1992 to 1999 he was the Administration Manager in Kinshasa. He returned to London in 1999 and joined Public & Corporate Affairs. He has been involved with projects and work streams regarding, the Kimberley Process, capacity building of government diamond offices in Sierra Leone and Liberia, The Peace Diamond Alliance in Sierra Leone, UN Global Compact, Council for Responsible Jewellery Practices (CRJP), Diamond Development Initiative (DDI), De Beers Mwadui Community Diamond Project Tanzania (MCDP), UK Government All Party Parliamentary Group Joint Working Group on the Great Lakes Region, Business Action for Africa (BAA), and is a World Diamond Council representative on Kimberley Process expert panels and review missions.

Stephane Fischler

Stephane Fischler, Secretary-General/Treasurer of the International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA), is a third generation diamantaire who started to work at Fischler Diamonds, Antwerp, in 1977. He has served as Vice-President of SBD (Belgian Manufacturers Association) since 1994, was Vice-President of IDMA from 1996-1997 and IDMA's Secretary-General/Treasurer in 1998. Stephane is a founding member of the World Diamond Council (WDC), is a member of its steering committee and in 2006 was elected vice-chairman. He is also President of the ECDM (European Council of Diamond Manufacturers). He is a board member of the Diamond High Council (HRD), has been its Treasurer since March 2005 and was elected HRD vice-president in 2006.

Dr. Gavin Hilson

Dr. Gavin Hilson trained in geosciences at the University of Toronto, and subsequently completed a Ph.D. in environmental technology at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. He has taught at the University of Cardiff and currently holds the post of Lecturer in Environment and Development at the Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester. Dr. Hilson’s current research centres on community development and environmental management in small-scale mining communities in West Africa and the Guianas. He has written extensively on artisanal mining, with an emphasis on Ghana.

Jon Hobbs

Jon Hobbs is Lead Policy Analyst; mining and minerals and environmental assessment at the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). He has worked extensively in Africa with the private sector and development organizations. He is member of the OECD’s Advisory Bureau for Environment and Chairman of the OECD Task Team on Strategic Environmental Assessment. He also Chairs the World Bank hosted Communities and Small-scale Mining (CASM) initiative. He leads the UK delegation to the Inter Governmental Forum on Mining, Minerals and Metals and Sustainable Development, is a member of the International Financial Institutions’ Working Group on the Environment and was recently appointed to the United Nation’s Development Programme’s Advisory Panel on energy and environment issues. Since 2006 he has been DFID’s representative to the European Commission’s delegation to the Kimberley Process.

Matthew Runci

Matt Runci is President and CEO of Jewelers of America, Inc. (JA), the national trade association for retail jewelers. Since joining JA in October 1995, he has guided the association in the development of responsible business practices for JA’s more than 11,000 member stores. Runci and JA were also centrally involved through the World Diamond Council in the establishment of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, to prevent the trade in conflict diamonds. In 2005, JA became a founding member of the Council for Responsible Jewellery Practices (CRJP), a mine-to-retail supply chain initiative working to institute a variety of ethical, social and environmental practices for its members. Runci currently serves as Chairman of the CRJP Board of Directors. He also currently serves as Chairman of the Ethics Commission of CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, and is a member of the board of directors of Jewelers for Children, an industry-wide charitable foundation.