Brad Brooks-Rubin, who had been working as strategic adviser and North American trade lead for the Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC), returned to the U.S. State Department as a senior adviser in the office of the coordinator of sanctions policy this past Spring.

Brooks-Rubin joined the RJC in September 2021 and soon became an outspoken critic of the group’s reluctance to suspend Russian diamond miner Alrosa following its invasion of Ukraine. (The miner eventually resigned from the RJC.)

Prior to that, he served as managing director for the Sentry, part of the Enough Project, and director, global development and beneficiation, for the Gemological Institute of America.

He previously worked at the U.S. State Department as senior adviser of conflict diamonds from 2009 to 2013, where he was the U.S. point person for the Kimberley Process.