Stuart Brown, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and acting joint Chief Executive Officer (CEO), of the De Beers Group, is resigning from his position and will stay on until 31 July, during which time he will help Philippe Mellier settle into his new role as CEO. According to Mr. Brown, after 20 years of serving in the company, “it is now the right time for me to move on and find new challenges”.

Nicky Oppenheimer, Chairman of De Beers, commented “Stuart has played a central role in reshaping De Beers and positioning it for the future”, and “seeing the company through the most challenging financial crisis since WWII and helping it to post the best financial results we’ve seen in more than a decade”.

Beginning his journey with De beers in 1992 at Premier (now Cullinan) Mine as the Internal Auditor, Mr. Brown progressed through a series of positions in Accounting, Mining, Diamond Manufacturing, Exploration, and Group Finance in Johannesburg. In 2004, he was appointed as CFO for DBCM, a position he held until his appointment as the Group CFO in 2006 and then as acting joint CEO in 2010.