After eight weeks of applications, more than 100 applicants and 28 days of intensive face-to-face, telephone and email interviews, the Women’s Jewellery Network (WJN) announced its new cohort of Ambassadors this weekend.
Commenting on the launch, MD Victoria McKay said: “This has been a truly humbling, inspiring and challenging process. We were overwhelmed by the response to our call for Ambassadors and as such, wanted to take the time to fully review and respond to every woman who had applied for a role. We had a clear strategy for selection and appointment; these initial Ambassadors represent a wide breadth of expertise and talent from across the industry. The new cohort join our founder Ambassadors and collectively they will help shape conversations, progress agendas and achieve our goals.”
The new WJN Ambassador cohort is formulated as follows:
SECTOR AMBASSADORS:
Sonia Menezes OMNICHANNEL
Rachael Taylor TRENDS
Victoria Waugh ETHICS & SUSTAINABILITY
Chloe Lightfoot DIAMOND MOUNTING
Miranda Raw PEARLS
Lucy Crowther FGA COLOURED GEMSTONES
Arabel Lebrusan ETHICAL RETAIL
Vivien Johnston SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Kerry Gregory EDUCATION
Estelle Levin-Nally ETHICAL SOURCING
Cynthia Cartwright RETAIL
Elina Faurschou EMPOWERMENT
Jerry Greig FINE JEWELLERY
REGION AMBASSADORS:
Belinda Morris EAST
Lauren Davidson DORSET
Catherine Marche STH LONDON
Rebecca Anne Johnson BRIGHTON
Sian Bostwick KENT
Marie Walshe SOUTH
Alexis Dove BRIGHTON
Victoria Brown SOLIHULL
Lin Johnson SOUTHAMPTON
Ebba Goring EDINBURGH
Jessica Steele LEEDS
Karen Webb-Meek LINCOLNSHIRE
Aysha Hazell OXFORD
Philippa Taylor GLOUCESTERSHIRE
Ruth Mary Chipperfield COVENTRY
Kati Elliott STAFFORDSHIRE
COUNTRY AMBASSADORS:
Emma-Louise Gregory WALES
Livi Pires BRAZIL
Marie Chabrol FRANCE
Anna Moltke-Huitfeldt DENMARK
Sonia Esther Soltani ISRAEL
Ayelet Lerner BELGIUM
Satta Matturi STH AFRICA
Ayalla Joseph ISRAEL
Victoria added: “We are really grateful to everyone who took time to apply for these roles and we will be adding to our Ambassador cohort over time, so we would urge women to reapply again in future. For now, though, we will be focusing on galvanising our position and membership offering, with the counsel and support of our new, greatly expanded team. We have attracted such a diverse pool of talent, background and age; it’s a really exciting time for us, as we start to work together, using our combined knowledge, expertise and passion for the benefit of the entire jewellery sector.”
