Rapaport Group - Chairman
http://www.diamonds.net
United States of America (New York, NY)
Portfolio
Martin Rapaport is Chairman of the Rapaport Group, a leading diamond and jewelry organization with over 12,000 clients in 82 countries. In 1978 he established the Rapaport Diamond Report the primary source of diamond price and market information. He also established RapNet - the world’s largest diamond trading network with daily listings of approximately US$5 billion of diamonds. The Group recently announced the introduction of the Rapaport Diamond Fund. Group activities also include information and research, global diamond trading and diamond certification.
Rapaport is a leading advocate for fair trade jewelry and an ethical diamond industry (www.diamonds.net/fairtrade). In 2000, during the war he visited Sierra Leone amputee camps and played a leading role in the establishment of the Kimberley Process – an international agreement controlling the flow of rough diamonds. He also financed the first digger’s cooperatives in coordination with US-AID. Rapaport believes that the key to sustainable economic development lies with the private sector and that diamonds should play an important role creating grass root microeconomic beneficiation in impoverished societies. In August 2011, the Group announced the introduction of Rapaport Ethical Certification - a certification system for ethical diamonds.