Element Six Announces Departure of CEO, Cyrus Jilla

LONDON, January 23, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Element Six today announced that Cyrus Jilla has decided to step down as the company's CEO, and as member of the Board of Element Six and De Beers Group Executive Committee.

Philippe Mellier, CEO, De Beers Group and Chairman, Element Six, said, "During his tenure, Cyrus led a restructuring of Element Six, resulting in a renewed focus on innovation, stronger operating performance, and notably a greatly improved safety record. As Element Six has established a strong platform for a new phase of growth, now is a natural time for Cyrus to hand over leadership. The Board and I are very grateful to Cyrus for his complete commitment to the business, and we wish him all the best in the next stage of his career".

Since joining Element Six as CEO in 2008, Mr Jilla has been instrumental in instituting positive change throughout the company.  He built enduring partnerships with strategic customers and focused on the development of extreme performance supermaterials, through innovation.

Element Six is the undisputed leader of the industrial synthetic diamond business. The growth potential for Element Six remains substantial as Element Six synthetic diamond products continue to substitute traditional materials in abrasive applications, and enable entirely new technologies and applications exploiting synthetic diamond's electronic, thermal, optical and chemical properties. Combined with a strong platform based on its world-leading R&D and IP, its manufacturing excellence, and the highest quality and service standards in its industry, Element Six is well positioned to take advantage of these opportunities.

The search for the new CEO is already underway and an announcement will be made in the near future.  Mr Jilla will remain in his position until a successor is appointed.

Notes to Editors:

About Element Six

Element Six (http://www.e6.com) is a synthetic diamond supermaterials company. Element Six is a member of the De Beers Group of Companies, its majority shareholder. Element Six designs, develops and produces synthetic diamond supermaterials, and operates worldwide with its head office registered in Luxembourg, and primary manufacturing facilities in China, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, South Africa, US and the UK.

Element Six supermaterial solutions are used in applications such as cutting, grinding, drilling, shearing and polishing, while the extreme properties of synthetic diamond beyond hardness are already opening up new applications in a wide array of industries such as optics, power transmission, water treatment, semi-conductors and sensors.