Latin American Diamond and Jewelry Week to Focus on Empowerment of Women

(IDEX Online News) – The Second Latin American Diamond and Jewelry Week will hold a special meeting, which will focus on the role and empowerment of women in the Latin American jewelry industry.

The meeting will be held at the Panama Diamond Exchange, which is significant as two of the four positions in its management team are held by women – senior vice president Ali Pastorini (who is also senior vice president at the World Jewelry Hub) and PDE vice president Judy Meana.

"We currently are witnessing two independent but parallel movements," said Pastorini, who established her own jewelry brand with a partner in her native Brazil. "The one is sectorial, and it involves the development of the jewelry and gemstone industry in Latin America, and the establishment of a sophisticated infrastructure, particularly in Panama, to facilitate its growth. The second is more general, and it is the enabling of women as full participants in their own right in the region's economy and power structure.”

Meana, a communications specialist who previously worked as a television news anchor and spokesperson for the Panamanian president and government, said that she hoped that this would be just the first step in developing a concrete strategy for raising the involvement of women in the industry – along with a timetable.

"We want to provide Latin American women access to a knowledge base that will help them grow professionally and develop technical skills, including Corporate Social Responsibility,” Meana said. “Networking also is critical, for together we will be significantly strengthened. We want successful women to be able to look back to this meeting in June, and say it was a milestone in their journey."

The Second Latin American Diamond and Jewelry Week will take place from June 21-23.