Golden Gate Chapter: Diamond Industry Update with
Jon C. Phillips

Are you ready for the future? Sustainability, accountability and beneficiation are today’s corporate buzz words and you can use them to your benefit. Learn what’s hot and not and where our industry is headed, how our past choices reflect the current market condition and how consumers are buying more and more from the internet. An overview of the world diamond market and its ups and downs will be presented along with how this affects you in your business.

Jon Phillips has been in the jewelry business for more than 35 years and worked in all of its facets. He is the divisional manager for Canadian Diamonds at Corona Jewellery Company Ltd. in Toronto, Canada. He is responsible for managing the rough to polish systems for Canadian Diamonds, including purchasing rough directly from mining companies and working with diamond polishing factories to produce the final product. He is also the lead instructor for Corona and travels worldwide to promote Canadian diamonds and gold. He is Corona’s first contact for anti-money laundering (AML) and Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) compliances.

Phillips was previously marketing manager for BHP Billiton Diamonds in both Vancouver and Antwerp and as service manager for Birks in Vancouver. He is a Certified Gemologist (CG) from the American Gem Society (AGS) and a Graduate Gemologist (GG) from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).

He became a journeyman goldsmith when he and his wife ran a custom jewelry business in Vancouver for 15 years. He is using that experience teach in the Jewellery Art and Design program at Vancouver Community College.

Phillips is also is the chairman of the Accreditation and Certification committee of the RJC and is a past member of the Standards Committee; is a past vice-president of the diamond commission for CIBJO; is on the board of Canadian Diamond Code of Conduct Committee (CDCC); and is on several committees for the Canadian Jewellers Association (CJA).