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Awards recognize responsible diamond leaders
New York--Ivanka Trump, Dr. Benjamin Chavis and executives from Rio Tinto and Sterling Jewelers Inc. were among those in attendance last week at the Diamond Empowerment Fund’s (DEF) first “The Good Awards.”
Held Thursday night in event space topping The Empire Hotel in Manhattan, the awards were created to recognize those industry leaders and companies that work to ensure responsible supply chains, that some “good” comes out of the diamonds that are used in their jewelry.
The packed party kicked off with cocktails at 6:30 p.m. Later in the evening, Phyllis Bergman, CEO of Mercury Ring Corp. and president of DEF’s governing board, took the stage to show a short video illustrating the purpose of DEF and to honor the evening’s recipients.
The first honoree recognized was Diamond Trading Co. (DTC) Managing Director Varda Shine, who was unable to attend because of a wedding in India but submitted a video thanking DEF for her award. Chavis accepted on Shine’s behalf.
Following the presentation to Shine, the rest of those being honored took the stage one at a time to accept their award: Rio Tinto and the manager of its U.S. representative office Rebecca Foerster, Sterling Jewelers and its Senior Vice President of Merchandising Ed Hrabak and Ivanka Trump of Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry, who is pictured below giving her acceptance speech.
The evening ended with a performance by Grammy-nominated R&B singer Melanie Fiona, whose new, and second, album is called The MF Life.
Fiona is pictured above (at left) at the event with South African-born supermodel Nicola Breytenbach-Steiner, one of “Africa’s Angels.” The Angels are DEF’s ambassadors who are committed to the cause and use their celebrity to raise awareness of and funds for the organization.
Co-founded by music mogul and jewelry entrepreneur Russell Simmons, DEF is a non-profit that seeks to raise money for education initiatives in African nations where diamonds are a natural resource.









