Platinum marketing organisation Platinum Guild International’s (PGI’s) long-time CEO, Huw Daniel, will retire at the end of March, after 21 years with the organisation.

Having started his tenure in 2003 as president of PGI USA, Daniel was appointed CEO in 2015.

“It allowed me to leverage all the great people at PGI to build a high-performing global team focused on driving innovation and value creation for the jewellery industry with platinum,” said Daniel on becoming CEO.

“Our organisation has evolved from a marketing, public relations and event machine to a business partner with the jewellery industry. Platinum will always be a small part of the industry due to its natural rarity, but it can be a very important driver of differentiation and profitability. PGI's focus today is to enable our partners to get the maximum incremental return from this superb material.”

PGI has named Tim Schlick, the organisation’s current COO, as Daniel’s successor. He will begin his tenure as CEO on April 4.

“It has been a pleasure to work with Huw over the years and I thank him for his unwavering commitment to developing the demand for platinum jewellery globally.

“My congratulations to Tim on his new role and I look forward to continuing to work closely together, as our relationship with Platinum Guild is fundamental to building and supporting platinum’s growth in the jewellery sector,” said Anglo American executive head of PGMs market development Benny Oeyen.

Anglo American supports PGI through dedicated funding.

Schlick’s vision for the future includes building on the strong foundation established by Daniel.

“To me, the next logical step is to apply what we have built over the years to unlock more opportunities for the trade, and by doing so, create incremental value for both our partners and sponsors, scaling the value we create,” he explained.

Originally from Wales, Daniel spent a large portion of his career in advertising, working in both Europe and Asia, for notable clients such as British Airways and Proctor & Gamble, prior to joining PGI.

His first introduction to the jewellery industry was his tenure with diamond miner De Beers in Asia Pacific, where he worked on campaigns for 11 global markets.