Foundation Trustees
The Trustees have the responsibility of deciding which projects the Foundation should undertake, regulating spend, evaluating impact of initiatives and overseeing the delivery of projects. The Trustees meet regularly to decide how the funds will be used. Our Trustees are:
Philippe Lamblin
Chairman
The Trustee’s chairman, Philippe, started his financial career at Morgan Stanley in 2000. More recently, he was the chief executive officer and founder of PrivatSea Ltd, the “Lifestyle Family Office”, where he dealt with ultra-high-net-worth clients. He joined Nevastar in 2009 in order to help develop its Private Wealth and Family Office services.
Beforehand, Philippe was in the Army and served as a Lieutenant and Captain in the French Foreign Legion within the ranks of the 2nd Foreign Legion Parachute Regiment.
Philippe first experienced Africa during postings there with the French Foreign legion, particularly Chad, which was where he really realised the need to help the local population in an efficient way.
He is a trustee for the Gemfields Foundation as he wishes to make a difference and dedicate some time to meaningful projects and causes – particularly in the provision of essentials such as water, schools and hospitals.
In his youth, Philippe was in the “Conference Saint Vincent de Paul” in France, which had a mission to take care of elderly people in need.
Chairman
Philippe Lamblin
Chairman
The Trustee’s chairman, Philippe, started his financial career at Morgan Stanley in 2000. More recently, he was the chief executive officer and founder of PrivatSea Ltd, the “Lifestyle Family Office”, where he dealt with ultra-high-net-worth clients. He joined Nevastar in 2009 in order to help develop its Private Wealth and Family Office services.
Beforehand, Philippe was in the Army and served as a Lieutenant and Captain in the French Foreign Legion within the ranks of the 2nd Foreign Legion Parachute Regiment.
Philippe first experienced Africa during postings there with the French Foreign legion, particularly Chad, which was where he really realised the need to help the local population in an efficient way.
He is a trustee for the Gemfields Foundation as he wishes to make a difference and dedicate some time to meaningful projects and causes – particularly in the provision of essentials such as water, schools and hospitals.
In his youth, Philippe was in the “Conference Saint Vincent de Paul” in France, which had a mission to take care of elderly people in need.
Dr Sixtus C Mulenga
Trustee
Sixtus is a mining geologist with over 40 years of experience in the mining industry and author of numerous papers on Mining Industry and Sustainability in the Extractive Industry. Now the chairman of Kagem Mining Limited, Sixtus would like to see the Gemfields Foundation make a significant contribution to local community development in the areas of education, skills development, health, environmental stewardship, conservation and development of sustainable agriculture and livelihoods. He is particularly motivated to see the Foundation succeed as it reinforces his personal values of giving back to society.
Sixtus’ family business built a school in the Chililabombwe District on the Copperbelt Province in Zambia, which offers scholarships to orphans and has been running for 22 years. He has been the Zambian Patron of the UK Charity Cecily’s Fund for 15 years, educating over 15,000 young people in Kitwe and Lusaka, Zambia.
Sixtus’ previously held positions include Vice President – Safety, Health, Environment and Quality (Sustainability) for Konkola Copper Mines Plc of Anglo-American Plc and Group Consulting Hydro-Geologist of Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Ltd., Founder and Executive Chairman for Musamu Resources Ltd, as well as a decade of entrepreneurial endeavours. Sixtus is a Founding Member and Trustee of the British Chamber of Commerce in Zambia, a Practitioner of Principles of Sustainable Development in the Mining Industry, a Member of the Working Group of the International Council on Mining and Metals and both advisor and technical consultant to the Zambian Government and World Bank.
Trustee
Dr Sixtus C Mulenga
Trustee
Sixtus is a mining geologist with over 40 years of experience in the mining industry and author of numerous papers on Mining Industry and Sustainability in the Extractive Industry. Now the chairman of Kagem Mining Limited, Sixtus would like to see the Gemfields Foundation make a significant contribution to local community development in the areas of education, skills development, health, environmental stewardship, conservation and development of sustainable agriculture and livelihoods. He is particularly motivated to see the Foundation succeed as it reinforces his personal values of giving back to society.
Sixtus’ family business built a school in the Chililabombwe District on the Copperbelt Province in Zambia, which offers scholarships to orphans and has been running for 22 years. He has been the Zambian Patron of the UK Charity Cecily’s Fund for 15 years, educating over 15,000 young people in Kitwe and Lusaka, Zambia.
Sixtus’ previously held positions include Vice President – Safety, Health, Environment and Quality (Sustainability) for Konkola Copper Mines Plc of Anglo-American Plc and Group Consulting Hydro-Geologist of Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Ltd., Founder and Executive Chairman for Musamu Resources Ltd, as well as a decade of entrepreneurial endeavours. Sixtus is a Founding Member and Trustee of the British Chamber of Commerce in Zambia, a Practitioner of Principles of Sustainable Development in the Mining Industry, a Member of the Working Group of the International Council on Mining and Metals and both advisor and technical consultant to the Zambian Government and World Bank.
Richa Goyal Sikri
Trustee
Richa is a Singapore-based independent journalist in the gem and jewellery industry covering various aspects from mine to market. A bachelor of commerce (with honours) from Delhi University and an MBA, her interest in the industry started six years ago (2013) after visiting a sapphire mine in Sri Lanka. Subsequently, she began curating and executing educational trips to mines and manufacturing hubs, furthering her knowledge as a connoisseur, and documenting her experiences on Instagram. Formal education with the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) soon followed. 
Her unique style of storytelling led to projects, articles and talks for: The Art Science Museum, Singapore, Harper’s Bazaar, RAPAPORT magazine, World Emerald Symposium (Colombia), Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), the International Colored Gemstone Association (ICA) and recently the Diamond Exchange of Singapore (DES) to name a few.
Prior to her interest in journalism, she spent twenty years as a second-generation entrepreneur building one of the foremost aviation marketing companies in South Asia (STIC Travel Group). Internationally, Richa served for ten years as an elected board member of the not-for-profit International Student Identity Card Association (ISIC), guiding development work benefitting tertiary students across 100 countries.
During Richa’s independent travels to gem mining areas, she would seek organisations and initiatives for charitable contributions, leaving a positive impact. Her deep interest in the industry led her to visit the Kagem emerald mine in Zambia in 2019. Observing first-hand, the positive effects of the mining operation motivated her to contribute towards an infrastructure development project for the Kapila primary school.
Richa is enthusiastic about initiatives that provide education and financial independence to women and those that generate effective training and employment. She was invited to join the Gemfields Foundation and is glad to offer her support, as she believes the company’s experience in Africa has given rise to a workable model, ensuring contributions are effective, traceable and relevant.
Trustee
Richa Goyal Sikri
Trustee
Richa is a Singapore-based independent journalist in the gem and jewellery industry covering various aspects from mine to market. A bachelor of commerce (with honours) from Delhi University and an MBA, her interest in the industry started six years ago (2013) after visiting a sapphire mine in Sri Lanka. Subsequently, she began curating and executing educational trips to mines and manufacturing hubs, furthering her knowledge as a connoisseur, and documenting her experiences on Instagram. Formal education with the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) soon followed. Her unique style of storytelling led to projects, articles and talks for: The Art Science Museum, Singapore, Harper’s Bazaar, RAPAPORT magazine, World Emerald Symposium (Colombia), Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), the International Colored Gemstone Association (ICA) and recently the Diamond Exchange of Singapore (DES) to name a few.
Prior to her interest in journalism, she spent twenty years as a second-generation entrepreneur building one of the foremost aviation marketing companies in South Asia (STIC Travel Group). Internationally, Richa served for ten years as an elected board member of the not-for-profit International Student Identity Card Association (ISIC), guiding development work benefitting tertiary students across 100 countries.
During Richa’s independent travels to gem mining areas, she would seek organisations and initiatives for charitable contributions, leaving a positive impact. Her deep interest in the industry led her to visit the Kagem emerald mine in Zambia in 2019. Observing first-hand, the positive effects of the mining operation motivated her to contribute towards an infrastructure development project for the Kapila primary school.
Richa is enthusiastic about initiatives that provide education and financial independence to women and those that generate effective training and employment. She was invited to join the Gemfields Foundation and is glad to offer her support, as she believes the company’s experience in Africa has given rise to a workable model, ensuring contributions are effective, traceable and relevant.
Samora Machel Jr.
Trustee
Samora is a successful businessman, having served as the independent chairman of Montepuez Ruby Mine (MRM) since 2013. He is also the chairman of Megaruma Mining Lda, a shareholder of the vehicle-tracking system Cartrack Lda and the son of Mozambique’s first independent president.
Samora is a passionate supporter of community engagement and livelihood projects. Recognising that, for the nation of Mozambique and the Mozambican people, the key to economic empowerment and better livelihoods is through education and access to knowledge, he has given his full support to the programme of community projects funded by MRM.
In particular, Samora was instrumental in supporting MRM’s development of a vocational training centre, which is now fully operational and trains up to 300 people a year in new skills, such as plumbing, electrics and masonry. A keen football fan, Samora also helped to secure long-term funding for the team local to MRM, Pemba FC, and for those in his home city of Maputo.
Trustee
Samora Machel Jr.
Trustee
Samora is a successful businessman, having served as the independent chairman of Montepuez Ruby Mine (MRM) since 2013. He is also the chairman of Megaruma Mining Lda, a shareholder of the vehicle-tracking system Cartrack Lda and the son of Mozambique’s first independent president.
Samora is a passionate supporter of community engagement and livelihood projects. Recognising that, for the nation of Mozambique and the Mozambican people, the key to economic empowerment and better livelihoods is through education and access to knowledge, he has given his full support to the programme of community projects funded by MRM.
In particular, Samora was instrumental in supporting MRM’s development of a vocational training centre, which is now fully operational and trains up to 300 people a year in new skills, such as plumbing, electrics and masonry. A keen football fan, Samora also helped to secure long-term funding for the team local to MRM, Pemba FC, and for those in his home city of Maputo.
Edward Johnson
Trustee
As Gemfields’ Corporate Responsibility Director, Edward is responsible for leading initiatives to create a positive impact for the local communities around Gemfields’ mines in Mozambique and Zambia. Raised in Africa himself, this is a mission that Edward is ideally suited to.
In this role, Edward is also tasked with driving improvements across the coloured gemstone and jewellery sectors as a whole. His career to date has focused on knowledge, ethics and integrity within the gem and jewellery industry, with an overarching drive to protect consumer confidence through responsible business practices. His African upbringing has given him a desire to apply his wealth of experience to create change on the continent.
Since entering the industry in 1993, Edward has held senior executive positions with the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) in London and has experience as a trade journalist, educator, gemmological consultant, and jewellery appraiser in Hong Kong. Prior to joining Gemfields in April 2022, he ran his own consultancy delivering projects to advance responsible business practices and address ESG issues in the jewellery supply chain with clients including The World Jewellery Confederation, CIBJO.
Edward is a Graduate Gemologist from GIA, as well as a member of both the Gemmological Association of Hong Kong and the Gemmological Association of Great Britain.
Trustee
Edward Johnson
Trustee
As Gemfields’ Corporate Responsibility Director, Edward is responsible for leading initiatives to create a positive impact for the local communities around Gemfields’ mines in Mozambique and Zambia. Raised in Africa himself, this is a mission that Edward is ideally suited to.
In this role, Edward is also tasked with driving improvements across the coloured gemstone and jewellery sectors as a whole. His career to date has focused on knowledge, ethics and integrity within the gem and jewellery industry, with an overarching drive to protect consumer confidence through responsible business practices. His African upbringing has given him a desire to apply his wealth of experience to create change on the continent.
Since entering the industry in 1993, Edward has held senior executive positions with the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) in London and has experience as a trade journalist, educator, gemmological consultant, and jewellery appraiser in Hong Kong. Prior to joining Gemfields in April 2022, he ran his own consultancy delivering projects to advance responsible business practices and address ESG issues in the jewellery supply chain with clients including The World Jewellery Confederation, CIBJO.
Edward is a Graduate Gemologist from GIA, as well as a member of both the Gemmological Association of Hong Kong and the Gemmological Association of Great Britain.
Emily Dungey
Managing Director
Emily is the managing director of the Gemfields Foundation, in addition to leading marketing and communications across the Gemfields Group.
Emily’s career to date has spanned both luxury and charity, noting the increasing overlap between the two in recent years, with rising conscious consumption in major luxury markets. Emily coordinated every new product press launch at luxury automotive manufacturer Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for six years, before joining international charity Save the Children to shape a marketing performance strategy and manage the crisis response team. Her subsequent projects, leading up to her joining Gemfields in 2018, included a tech start-up, an eco-tourism company and her own marketing consultancy.
Having visited Gemfields’ community projects in Zambia and Mozambique on numerous occasions, Emily has seen first-hand what a tangible difference each one makes to real people and family life. Emily is passionate about providing consumers with the ability to make a positive impact with their purchase decisions. Over and above the benefits of opting to purchase a Gemfields gemstone, the Gemfields Foundation offers a unique opportunity for individuals to sidestep the usual overheads and see their entire donation bring benefit to communities and conservation efforts. In her role as managing director of the Foundation, Emily is keen to drive these vital projects forward for the benefit of remote African families and diminishing wildlife.
Managing Director
Emily Dungey
Managing Director
Emily is the managing director of the Gemfields Foundation, in addition to leading marketing and communications across the Gemfields Group.
Emily’s career to date has spanned both luxury and charity, noting the increasing overlap between the two in recent years, with rising conscious consumption in major luxury markets. Emily coordinated every new product press launch at luxury automotive manufacturer Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for six years, before joining international charity Save the Children to shape a marketing performance strategy and manage the crisis response team. Her subsequent projects, leading up to her joining Gemfields in 2018, included a tech start-up, an eco-tourism company and her own marketing consultancy.
Having visited Gemfields’ community projects in Zambia and Mozambique on numerous occasions, Emily has seen first-hand what a tangible difference each one makes to real people and family life. Emily is passionate about providing consumers with the ability to make a positive impact with their purchase decisions. Over and above the benefits of opting to purchase a Gemfields gemstone, the Gemfields Foundation offers a unique opportunity for individuals to sidestep the usual overheads and see their entire donation bring benefit to communities and conservation efforts. In her role as managing director of the Foundation, Emily is keen to drive these vital projects forward for the benefit of remote African families and diminishing wildlife.
Sean Gilbertson
Trustee
Sean is passionate that those who mine coloured gemstones should do so with transparency, integrity and legitimacy. His determination for coloured gemstones to give back to their place of origin has seen numerous successful initiatives, such as Emeralds for Elephants in 2010, rhino anti-poaching aircraft and various community and conservation projects, not to mention personal donations in the neighbourhoods of Gemfields’ mine sites. Sean is proudly the legal custodian of seven critically endangered black rhino in Namibia.
As a South African mining engineer, Sean initially spent time in Africa’s deep-level gold and platinum mines. He then worked as project financier for Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt and London, specialising in independent power projects and public/ private partnerships.
In 1998, he co-founded globalCOAL, a company that played a central role in the commoditisation of the thermal coal industry, and was appointed CEO in 2001, when the business was acquired by a number of large industry players, including Anglo American plc, BHP-Billiton plc, Glencore International AG and Rio Tinto plc. He was also co-founder of the pioneering Spectron eMetals trading platform for category I and II members of the London Metals Exchange. Sean was a co-founder of the Pallinghurst Group (now Gemfields Group), and since 2006, he has been primarily responsible for the group’s coloured gemstone strategy. In 2017, Sean was appointed Gemfields’ CEO. He is also CEO of Fabergé and Kagem Mining Limited.
Trustee
Sean Gilbertson
Trustee
Sean is passionate that those who mine coloured gemstones should do so with transparency, integrity and legitimacy. His determination for coloured gemstones to give back to their place of origin has seen numerous successful initiatives, such as Emeralds for Elephants in 2010, rhino anti-poaching aircraft and various community and conservation projects, not to mention personal donations in the neighbourhoods of Gemfields’ mine sites. Sean is proudly the legal custodian of seven critically endangered black rhino in Namibia.
As a South African mining engineer, Sean initially spent time in Africa’s deep-level gold and platinum mines. He then worked as project financier for Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt and London, specialising in independent power projects and public/ private partnerships.
In 1998, he co-founded globalCOAL, a company that played a central role in the commoditisation of the thermal coal industry, and was appointed CEO in 2001, when the business was acquired by a number of large industry players, including Anglo American plc, BHP-Billiton plc, Glencore International AG and Rio Tinto plc. He was also co-founder of the pioneering Spectron eMetals trading platform for category I and II members of the London Metals Exchange. Sean was a co-founder of the Pallinghurst Group (now Gemfields Group), and since 2006, he has been primarily responsible for the group’s coloured gemstone strategy. In 2017, Sean was appointed Gemfields’ CEO. He is also CEO of Fabergé and Kagem Mining Limited.
