GIA appoints Katherine Andrews as VP Ethics and Compliance

GIA (Gemological Institute of America) has created a new role at its organisation - Ethics and Compliance; for which it has appointed Katherine Palmer Andrews as vice president. “GIA has been named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute for the last two years in recognition of the excellent work that has gone into our compliance program. Katherine’s impressive skills and experience will help us build upon that success, ensuring that GIA continues as a leader in ethics and compliance,” said Susan Jacques, GIA’s president and CEO.

Andrews joins GIA from Thomson Reuters, where she developed an enterprise-wide compliance program, and begins her new tenure from September 8, and will report to President and CEO Susan Jacques. Her role would be involve ensuring the integrity of the Institute’s compliance and ethics programs. “It is paramount that we do our very best to ensure the public trust in gems and jewelry,” said Andrews. She added that building ‘the Institute’s organizational capacity to meet the compliance challenges and opportunities that lie ahead’ would be her priority.

Andrews has extensive experience developing enterprise compliance programs and leading global teams, including six years in chief compliance officer roles at General Electric Co., has experience with the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, in private practice, in-house attorney for GE Energy. She is a founding member of the Chief Compliance Officers Forum in Atlanta and a board member of the Georgia Bar Antitrust Section.