The World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) elected Ernest Blom, its vice-president, as president on Tuesday at the 24th World Diamond Congress in Mumbai.
Blom, who was unopposed, replaces Avi Paz, former president of the Israel Diamond Exchange. Blom is a former WFDB president and an honorary life president.
Chair of the Diamond Dealers Club of South Africa, Blom is a third generation member of a South African diamond family.
"I am very honored and humbled that you, the members of the WFDB, have elected me to lead this organization for the next term of office," Blom said in his acceptance speech. "I am committed to take on this task and can assure you that I will give nothing but my best to make it a success.
"A goal of mine is to ensure that we, as an organization, add value to all our members. We need to take a step forward ensuring that we move from 'talk to action' and bring our organization to the forefront of the diamond industry, a leader and 'do-er'," he added.
Meanwhile, the following members of the WFDB were appointed to its Executive Committee: Julien Drybooms is Secretary-General, and Rony Unterman is Treasurer-General, while Executive members are Dieter Hahn, Rami Baron, Reuven Kaufman, Nikhil Jhaveri, Anoop Metha, Sergey Oulin, AlexPopov, Lin Qiang, and Yair Sahar.