Avi Paz, the president of the Israeli Diamond Exchange (IDE), was appointed as the new president of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) at the 33rd World Diamond Congress in Shanghai which began on Monday.Paz takes over from Ernie Blom, who was president for the past two years, after serving as vice-president on Blom’s executive committee. Paz, who is 62, has served as president of the IDE for the past three years. Blom was elected vice president of the WFDB and WFDB honorary life president.

The WFDB will hear applications from three new bourses established in Panama, Australia and Turkey. The WFDB also announced that six trade press magazines have agreed to join its WFDB Mark Associate Members Programme. The magazines are JCK Magazine, Diamond World, IDEX Magazine, INSTORE, Modern Jeweler and The Rapaport Diamond Report.

Michael Vaughan, the WFDB’s secretary general and executive director said, “The increased visibility of the WFDB Mark by means of advertisements in these leading industry publications will be of enormous help and we are very pleased that we have them on board. There are at present more than 1,000 WFDB Mark holders worldwide and we’re definitely hoping for a snowball effect.”

The early adopters of the WFDB Mark Associate Member Programme will be honoured at a special ceremony during the World Diamond Congress that ends May 15.

Credit is given to AFNS for Diamondtopics.com