De Beers Hires New Auctions Exec

RAPAPORT… De Beers has appointed Alastair Bickerstaff as head of
product development and sales for its auctions division.



The company created the new role to bring the two elements
of the auctions business together so it could better address its customers’
needs, it said last week.



Bickerstaff, who began working with De Beers in 2005 as a London-based
trainee rough-diamond valuer, held a variety of positions before joining the
auctions division in 2016. He was most recently head of production in
Singapore.


“The time spent with polishing-factory managers has given me
great learnings and insight into the importance of building rough-diamond
products which are relevant and reactive to our customer’s needs,” Bickerstaff
explained. “This isn’t necessarily an easy task to achieve on the scale that we
sell and the size of our customer base, however, we have a few new solutions to
help us, which we will be rolling out soon.”


Bickerstaff will lead a 12-person sales team, as well as the
product development and supply teams, in an effort to market the group’s
products in a more targeted way, and to improve the company’s responsiveness to
customer feedback, De Beers noted.


“Digital transformation is underway in many industries to
further enhance sales models, build stronger connections with customers and
optimize production. [We] see this as a great opportunity,” said James Kirby, De
Beers’ senior vice president of auctions. “Together with Alastair’s extensive
product knowledge, customers can expect us to introduce more product- and
service-oriented solutions in the very near future where we put technology to
great use to better address their needs quicker than before.”



Image: Alastair Bickerstaff. (De Beers)