Alrosa Replaces Newly Appointed Marketing Executive

Alrosa has appointed Yuri Okoyemov vice president of sales and marketing, in what appears as a step by the diamond miner’s new president to take control of the company.

Last month, in what turned out to be Sergey Vybornov’s last days as president of Alrosa, Vladlen Nogovitsyn was appointed to head the Russian diamond giant marketing efforts. Vybornov was ousted a week later, replaced by Fyodor Andreyev.

Okoyemov, according to an Alrosa statement quoted by Interfax, will be in charge of sales, the Single Selling Organization and the Brillianty Alrosa unit.

Alrosa, according to the Interfax report, started overhauling its sales system in the spring, forming three individual divisions: sorting, customer relations and marketing, and sales. The change was initiated to “eliminate conflict of interests which arise when one division is responsible for all three functions."

Nogovitsyn already reversed one policy, renewing rough diamond sales. Last month the company sold $150 million worth of goods and resumed its tenders of special diamonds – goods larger than 10.8 carats. The tender fetched $13 million, a relatively small total compared to previous such tenders.

Conflicting market reports claimed that Alrosa, which did not reduce rough diamond prices when prices tumbled last November, has reduced prices by up to 25 percent, a claim other clients later refuted.