Neil Ventura, Managing Director
Neil is currently the Managing Director of the Diamdel group of companies, a position he has held since July 2007.
The Diamdel group is responsible for sales of approximately 10% of De Beers production to broad range of non sight holding customers and has offices located in the leading diamond centres of Antwerp, Tel Aviv and Hong Kong.
The Hindustan Diamond Company (HDC) has offices in Mumbai and Surat and is an associated member of the Diamdel group but unlike the other operations is not wholly owned by the De Beers group. HDC is a joint venture between De Beers and the Government of India.
Joining De Beers in 1989, Neil has extensive experience spanning sorting, pricing, purchasing and sales operations within the rough diamond industry.
His highly international career to date has included assignments in Africa (DRC, Angola), Europe (England, Belgium) and Asia (India and China) with his most recent roles requiring him to operate at functional and business manager levels.
Neil started his career in London at the DTC but spent the early part of his career assuming a number of purchasing positions in the DRC and Angola from 1991-1998.
Neil then joined the Diamdel network working in HDC from 1998-2001 before moving across to Diamdel Antwerp. In 2002 Neil was appointed Managing Director of Diamdel’s Asia Pacific operations.
Based in Hong Kong Neil oversaw the expansion of the business including market entry into China. Neil remained in Hong Kong until August 2006 assuming the responsibility for global purchasing operations for the Diamdel group in 2005.
Neil then returned to London and spent a brief period as Office Manager to the MD of the DTC and secretary to DTC EXCO before assuming his current role in July 2007.
In his current role Neil has led the restructuring and repositioning of the Diamdel group, including the introduction of Diamdel E-auction sales to compliment direct sales from January 2008.
Neil earned his MBA in 2005 and was also awarded Chartered Manager status from the Chartered Management Institute in the same year. He speaks English, Portuguese and French.
Neil is married with two children and lives in England.