'Faces of the Industry', with Karen Rentmeesters, new CEO of AWDC

In this section, 'The Faces of the Industry', we bring the story of someone active within the Antwerp diamond sector in any possible way every month. This person, in turn, may pass the so-called torch to someone who inspires him or her or whose story he or she is curious about. 

We start with Karen Rentmeesters, who after a brief period as CEO Ad Interim, was unanimously elected as AWDC's permanent CEO by the entire Board of Directors on July 19. We snared her for a short interview in which she shared her views on the future and the challenges facing the Antwerp diamond industry.

You have been active in your new role for over a month but have worked in the diamond industry at AWDC for over 14 years. So you have a good overview of how the industry has evolved over the years. What challenges do you see as the most important for the Antwerp diamond industry today? The Antwerp diamond industry, and in fact the industry at large from miners to retailers, faces many challenges. We are confronted with rapidly changing regulations, requiring organizations and companies to continuously adapt their day-to-day operations, an ever-increasing focus on transparency, changing consumer preferences, or a global economic downturn, to name just a few. In some ways you could say we find ourselves in a perfect storm, so more than ever our industry needs to be able to adapt.

What role do you think AWDC can play in managing these challenges? Are there essential initiatives in the pipeline? Our job at the AWDC is to ensure we provide our stakeholders with the tools and information that can help them navigate this storm. At the same time, we need to focus on making sure decision-makers and external stakeholders better understand how our business works by demonstrating our relevance and showcasing our strengths and efforts so their policies enable us to grow rather than inadvertently create an opposite effect. I strongly believe that by collaborating in a pragmatic way we can strike the right balance. In that sense, it is no coincidence that at the end of November, we will be hosting the third edition of our annual conference, FACETS 2024: Navigating a New Era. By bringing together world and industry leaders and experts, we want to ignite an inclusive dialogue to discuss these disruptive forces and how we tackle them, together. I strongly believe that we can overcome the obstacles on our path only by learning from and working with each other. The FACETS conference will lead seamlessly into the Antwerp Diamond Week, featuring a program targeted at both industries and the general public.

Autumn in the diamond world often equals a very busy schedule. What events and happenings are you looking forward to in particular? That is true, the second part of the year is again packed with many other interesting events on the agenda, such as the Hong Kong Show that is coming up, the Angola International Diamond Conference, the CIBJO conference, the WJI 2030 gatherings and forums and the KP Plenary and Dubai Diamond Conference. These events all have a running thread. After nearly 15 years of working in this industry, I can say that our community is one of the people who are all passionate about what they do; they live and breathe diamonds. It is something that is quite contagious, and as CEO of the AWDC, I hope I can share some of that passion with the world and channel it toward positive change to the benefit of the Antwerp diamond community and our industry.

Who is the person you think deserves a place in the second edition of this newsletter as “Face of the Industry”? And why exactly? For the next edition, speaking about passion, I nominate Yael Gutkind, who ran as a candidate for the Board Elections last June. Although Yael wasn’t elected to take up a seat in our Board, anyone who speaks with her will agree with me that she lost her heart in the Antwerp diamond community and is a great ambassador for our city!

Thank you for this inspiring interview, Karen!

Karen Rentmeesters: 

* Determined to share her passion for diamonds with the rest of the world and inspire others  

* 45 years

* More than 14 years of experience within AWDC

* Graduated from the Catholic University of Leuven in 2002 and holds a master's degree in Communication Sciences.