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Susan Chandler has taken over as president of the Women’s Jewelry Association (WJA) following her selection as president-elect a year ago.Chandler, who is chief merchandising officer for Citizen Watch America, will occupy the position in 2022 and 2023, the WJA said last week. She has also...
Share Jewelers Mutual Group has acquired Gem + Jewel, a turnkey website service that lets jewelers sell their goods online. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Gem + Jewel was started in 2018 by Shelia Bayes (pictured), the owner of Shelia Bayes Jewelers in Lexington, Ky. She talked about its genesis on a May episode of the JCK podcast Gem + Jewel will be integrated into Jewelers Mutual’s industry-serving Zing platform. The service partners with vendors so jewelers can expand their online product offerings and share profits with partner suppliers. It includes a diamond marketplace power...
Show Recap JCK Las Vegas Victoria and Rob talk about getting their COVID-19 vaccines, followed by Victoria excitedly sharing that she just booked her hotel room for JCK Las Vegas, which runs Aug. 24–30. She’ll be at the Palazzo and can’t wait to see everyone there. On a sadder note, Victoria and Rob take a moment to honor the extraordinary women in the jewelry industry who passed away over the last few weeks: Elsa Peretti and Alex Woo. Mark Smelzer Leaves In other news, Mark Smelzer, who was JCK’s publisher for 17 years, has taken another job, with Jewelers Mutual Group as chief con...
People Moves: Acrisure Adds Marolda; Smeltzer Joins Jewelers Mutual; Rockford Mutual’s Johnson Retires April 7, 2021 Acrisure, based in Grand Rapids, Mich., appointed Matthew Marolda as its first chief innovation officer. Marolda will focus on business and growth opportunities aligned with Acrisure’s artificial intelligence (AI), data and technology platform. Marolda previously has served as the chief analytics officer of Legendary Entertainment and as a member of the executive leadership team at Tulco Holdings, as well as president of WarnerMedia’s A...
December 22, 2020 Francis “Fran” Zimniuch (pictured), the East Coast sales manager for InStore and parent company SmartWork Media for 16 years, died on Dec. 17, of complications related to COVID-19. He was 66. Zimniuch was born in Philadelphia and attended Temple University. His first foray into the jewelry publishing world was at Accent magazine, where he worked from 1985 to 1988. Following that, he sold for Professional Jeweler, from 1998 to 2002. He began at SmartWork in 2004, following a recommendation from former JCK publisher Charlie Bond, who had worked with him at Profession...