The non-profit organization Diamonds Do Good announced that Rebecca Foerster has resigned from her roles as president and board member.
Diamonds Do Good said in a statement:
Rebecca Foerster, president of ALROSA U.S.A., has agreed with the Diamonds Do Good board to resign as President and board member of Diamonds Do Good (DDG) effective immediately. The Board of Directors thanks Rebecca for her commitment to the organization and its beneficiaries, and for always putting its mission first.
Immediate Past President Anna Martin will fulfill the role of President. “I look forward to continuing the good work of Diamonds Do Good which has never been more important than it is today,” said Martin.
Diamonds Do Good, formerly known as the Diamond Empowerment Fund, is a not-for-profit organization inspired in 2006 by Nelson Mandela to tell the world about the positive impact of diamonds in Southern Africa. Its focus today is to create meaningful change in natural diamond communities across the world and to tell these meaningful stories.
The announcement is the latest fallout for Alrosa, a Russian diamond-mining company, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Last week, the company suspended its membership in the Natural Diamond Council. Alrosa “has stepped down from the Board and will cease all financial contributions,” according to a March 4 press release from NDC. The council added that “our thoughts remain with people impacted by the current geopolitical crisis.”
On March 3, Alrosa also temporarily left the board of directors of the Responsible Jewellery Council, where it held the position of vice chair. The company stated that it “stays committed to the RJC’s highest standards of responsible business practices and sustainability pledges, and continues to contribute to the positive impact to the communities and the people where it operates.”
In late February, Alrosa was among the institutions hit with U.S. sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The sanctions “target the core infrastructure of the Russian financial system — including all of Russia’s largest financial institutions and the ability of state-owned and private entities to raise capital — and further bar Russia from the global financial system,” according to a press release from the U.S. Treasury.
Alrosa is among entities subject to prohibitions related to new debt and equity.