Two industry veterans are stepping down from their high-ranking posts at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), the company announced recently.

Anna Martin, GIA’s senior vice president of Institute and Industry Relations, is leaving her post on December 31, 2023 after nine years with the organisation, 14 years on the GIA Board and more than four decades as one of the most influential leaders in the gem and jewellery trade. Meanwhile John W. Valley, a member of the GIA Board of Governors, retired from the board following GIA’s regular annual meeting held in early November in Carlsbad, California.

Martin, who joined GIA as senior vice president of Global Development in 2014, was a member of the GIA Board of Governors from 1997 to 2011 and served as vice-chair from 2008 to 2011. 

She became GIA senior vice president for Institute and Industry Relations in 2022 where she worked closely with GIA senior executives to enhance relationships with key individuals, companies and global gem and jewellery trade stakeholders.

Prior to her role at GIA, Martin was managing director at Standard Chartered Bank, responsible for building a diamond and jewellery portfolio. “In her four decades in banking, she successfully secured funding and significantly expanded the availability and delivery of financial services to the global diamond trade,” explained GIA.

Meanwhile, Valley is a renowned geoscientist and Charles R. Van Hise Distinguished Professor and former chair of the Department of Geoscience at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is known for his research in mineralogy, geochemistry, petrology and other earth sciences. 

“John Valley brought his keen scientific insight and expertise in Earth sciences to his near-decade on the Board in service of GIA’s consumer-protection mission,” said Lisa Locklear, chair of the GIA Board of Governors. 

Valley has pioneered studies of zircon, the oldest gem, showing that habitable conditions and oceans existed on earth far earlier than previously thought. He has authored more than 400 articles and held editorial positions for numerous esteemed scientific journals.