BHP Billiton Exec Joins Gemesis

S. Clark McEwen, former manager of BHP Billiton’s CanadaMark program, is joining Gemesis as Vice President of Marketing.

McEwen was manager of the CanadaMark program since 2003. CanadaMark is a branding initiative of Canadian mined diamonds. 

He began his career in 1985 with Spence Diamonds, a single retail location in Vancouver that grew to one of the largest manufacturers and retailers of diamond jewelry in Canada. During his tenure, McEwen was involved in every aspect of the business, from rough and polished diamond trading through to international multi-branch retailing. He retired from Spence in 2002, after which he joined BHP Billiton.

“Clark's decision to join our executive management team is a significant step toward achieving the Company's vision of building a major, complementary market segment within the traditional diamond industry,” said Carter W. Clarke, Chairman Gemesis’ Board.

“The Gemesis cultured diamond offers an exciting opportunity to responsibly build the leading brand in the new cultured diamond category,” McEwen said. “Much like the challenge that I had with building the CanadaMark program, a disciplined program of identification and tracking to ensure the authenticity of diamonds from the mine through to the consumer, the new cultured diamond category provides a similar, yet in many ways, more straight-forward challenge.”

Gemesis, a privately held company founded in 1996, has developed a break-through technology to make fancy color diamonds. The company produces rare fancy-color diamonds in its diamond growth facility in Sarasota, Florida. They possess the same physical, optical and chemical properties as natural diamonds.