Articles and News

Carlsbad, CA—The Board of Governors of GIA (Gemological Institute of America) has announced the appointment of Susan M. Jacques as president and CEO, effective January 1, 2014. Jacques, currently president and CEO of Borsheims Fine Jewelry and Gifts in Omaha, NE, and chair of the GIA board, has been serving as interim president and CEO since June 2013, when former president Donna Baker resigned after a seven-year tenure.

The board also announces the appointment of John A. Green as chair, replacing Jacques. He has been a board member since 2008. Green is CEO of Lux, Bond & Green, a family-owned luxury jeweler established in 1898 with eight locations in the U.S. states of Connecticut and Massachusetts. His appointment is effective October 7.

Susan Jacques, left, will take over as president and CEO of GIA. John Green, right, is its new board chairman, effective October 7.

Meanwhile, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chairman Warren Buffett has named Karen Goracke, Borsheims’ director of merchandising and a 25-year veteran of the retailer, to replace Jacques as president and CEO, effective January 1, 2014. She will work alongside Jacques in the intervening period.

Goracke (pictured top of page) began her career as a sales associate in Borsheims’ gift department, and moved to inventory supervisor in 1989 when Berkshire Hathaway purchased Borsheims. She was promoted to watch buyer before leaving the company for a few years to tend to her growing family. Since returning to Borsheims in 2004, Goracke has overseen all jewelry buying functions, including watches, women’s jewelry, bridal, loose diamonds, and luxury merchandise and recently added fine gift and home accessories buying. 

“I am honored and humbled to be named president and CEO of one of the America’s largest independent jewelers, especially during this exciting time with the Borsheims Boutique at Nebraska Crossing Outlets opening soon,” Goracke said. The Boutique is slated to open November 15.

Buffett said, "I couldn't be happier or more proud of Susan. While it is with great sadness that I accept her resignation after her long and stellar career with Borsheims, I know she is accepting a role at GIA that she is passionate about and allows her to give back to the jewelry industry.  I am confident that she will bring the same style of professionalism and collaboration to her new and exciting role in the gem and jewelry industry that she has honed throughout her years of service at Borsheims." Berkshire Hathaway acquired the retailer in 1989.

“The Board of Governors is very pleased to appoint Susan Jacques to this crucial role as GIA’s president and CEO,” said Green. “Her evident passion for the global gem and jewelry industry, impressive success in business, experience as a gemologist and commitment to the Institute’s public benefit mission led to the board’s decision. She is the perfect person to lead GIA now and into the future.” 

“I am honored and humbled by this tremendous opportunity to serve with the more than 2,000 dedicated GIA professionals across the globe. Together we will continue to protect the global public by ensuring their trust in the gem and jewelry industry,” said Jacques. “With the leadership team, particularly senior vice president of laboratory and research Tom Moses, I look forward to working closely with all of GIA’s stakeholders to address their important issues as we build on the Institute’s successes and strengths.” She continued, “I am blessed to come back to GIA, which contributed so much to my professional life, and am delighted to be able to give back to the industry of which I am so fortunate to be a part.”

Jacques, a dedicated advocate of social responsibility and ethical sourcing, is a native of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). As a young woman working for a local jewelry company, she came to the United States to study at GIA, with all intentions of returning home to live. But as the situation in her native country grew more unstable, she opted to emigrate. With the jewelry industry deeply affected by the early 1980s recession, finding consistent work was a struggle when a friend and fellow GIA classmate, Alan Friedman, suggested she come work for a holiday season at his family's store in Omaha. (Friedman's father, Ike, was the one who later inked the deal to sell Borsheims to Buffett.) With few other options at the time, she took him up on it, driving from California to Nebraska just before Thanksgiving 1982, in the first snow she'd ever seen--and not being used to driving on the right. But the rest, as they say, is history.

After joining Borsheims in 1982, Jacques was appointed president and CEO in 1994. In addition to her GIA GG, she is a Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Jewelry Association in 2010, and was inducted into the National Jeweler’s Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Omaha Business Hall of Fame in 2013. She is a member of the Jewelers of America Ethical Initiatives committee and the honorary chair of the Friends of the Diamond Development Initiative. She has served on the boards of Jewelers of America, the Jewelers Vigilance Committee and Jewelers for Children. She is on the board of directors of Creighton University, a trustee of the Ethical Alliance and a member of the World Presidents’ Organization.

Jacques has a long-established relationship with GIA. After having received her Graduate Gemologist (GG) diploma in 1980, she was appointed to GIA’s Board of Governors in 1996 and elected chair in 2008. As president and CEO she will continue as a member of the board, which selected Jacques following a wide-ranging global search led by retained executive search firm DHR.

Of her successor at Borsheims, Jacques said, “Karen’s expertise and experience will help in guiding the company to new heights. She will continue to lead this store in the way it has been led for the past century – giving our clients a great selection of products and incredible customer service at the low Borsheims price.”