Mumbai: The Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) has appointed Purvi Shah, currently head of ethical and sustainable value chains at De Beers, as its next executive director, effective Feb. 7, 2026.

She will succeed John Hall, who has served as interim executive director since Melanie Grant’s departure in January.

Shah has been with De Beers for 17 years and has served on the RJC board since 2023, as well as co-chairing its standards committee since 2018. In these capacities, she contributed to the development of the RJC’s 2024 Code of Practices, the 2024 Chain of Custody Standard, and its inaugural Laboratory-Grown Material Standard.

She also chairs CIBJO’s nomenclature committee, where she played a key role in shaping the Blue List, an effort to establish globally consistent sustainability terminology.

Shah will be the second former De Beers executive to lead the RJC, following Andrew Bone.

Her move comes shortly after the departure of longtime De Beers colleague Feriel Zerouki, who left the company last month after two decades.

Also exiting De Beers is Pamela Fierst-Walsh, the former U.S. State Department official known for her work on conflict diamonds. She joined De Beers less than a year ago as vice president of global affairs for North America and, according to LinkedIn, is now serving as a senior program manager at Google.