LONDON – Céline Assimon is stepping down as chief executive officer of De Beers Jewellers in a pivotal moment for the retail brand, and the wider De Beers group.
Assimon, who joined De Beers in 2020, will remain until the end of February before taking up a new job outside the group later this year.
De Beers wished Assimon “the very best for all future endeavors,” and said a search is underway to recruit a successor.
The company said Assimon “successfully repositioned De Beers Jewellers as a design-led luxury brand through the expansion of our creative product portfolio in core collections and high jewelery.”
It added that Assimon “built the jeweler’s global brand presence through relationships with market leading partners and laid the groundwork for the launch of its Rue de la Paix flagship store in Paris later this year.”
The brand is set to open the flagship store in the fourth quarter in a building that has recently been renovated.
De Beers also credited Assimon with revamping the look and feel of the brand, which will be revealed in a new ad campaign set for release later this month.
Assimon succeeded François Delage as CEO of the jewelry business, which is wholly owned by De Beers. In 2017, De Beers took control of what was formerly a 50-50 retail joint venture with LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
In 2021, Assimon took on the additional role of CEO at the De Beers Forevermark brand, and served in that role until March 2024.
Before joining De Beers, Assimon was CEO of the Swiss jeweler De Grisogono. She has also held positions across the sales, marketing and merchandising sectors of labels including Piaget and Louis Vuitton.
Assimon’s depature comes amid wider changes at De Beers group.
As reported, the mining giant Anglo American is planning to sell or spin off De Beers as part of an effort to simplify its portfolio, create value for shareholders, and separate out non-core businesses.
Anglo American, which is quoted on the London Stock Exchange, said in a stock market filing last year that De Beers will be divested or demerged “to improve strategic flexibility,” both for the diamond company and for Anglo American.
Over the past year, the mining giant has been streamlining, selling off assets and has also announced plans to separate its platinum business as it focuses on its core copper, premium iron ore and crop nutrients businesses.
Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Anglo’s plans to divest De Beers “would be substantively complete” by the end of 2025.
Reuters quoted Anglo CEO Duncan Wanblad as saying that De Beers will be “fully set up as a standalone business to make sure that it’s not going to be impacting as a drag in any way, shape or form on the business.”
De Beers group has progressively become a drag. The price of rough diamonds has been falling amid weakening demand post-COVID and a surge in popularity for lab-grown rocks among younger generations.
The country of Botswana, which owns a 15 percent stake in De Beers, has offered to raise its stake in the diamond miner as part of the planned separation of De Beers.
The sale or spinoff of De Beers will mark the end of an era. Anglo had been a shareholder in the diamond miner since the 1920s, and took full control in 2011 after acquiring the Oppenheimer family’s shares.
Under the Oppenheimers, De Beers dominated the 20th-century world diamond market, expanding from mining into marketing, retail and branded diamonds under the Forevermark banner.
