American Jewelry Industry Shines at Twenty-Four Karat Banquet

Last night New York’s famed Waldorf-Astoria Hotel played host to a veritable Who’s Who of the American jewelry industry as the 105th annual banquet of the Twenty-Four Karat Club got underway. The black tie gala, which began with cocktails at six in hosted pre-party receptions held in no less than a half-dozen ancillary ballrooms, didn’t actually conclude until the last of the revelers left the Waldorf’s Empire Room after-party sometime past 3AM.

The Twenty-Four Karat Club of the City of New York, whose membership never wavers beyond 200 industry leaders, until 1989 was an all male bastion. This year’s gala saw the induction of the thirteenth woman to club’s ranks, Marcee Feinberg, vice president of marketing for DTC Sightholder Lazare Kaplan International Inc.

"Fantastic, absolutely fantastic," was the sentiment expressed by Patti J. Geolat, chairman of the board of Jewelers Mutual Insurance Company, concerning the club’s newest woman inductee. This was a sentiment which was heard expressed time and time again among those in attendance.

Doug Hucker, the director of the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA), perhaps put it best when he said, "It’s absolutely wonderful. I can think of no finer, more deserving an individual than Marcee Feinberg and I’m extremely happy for her."

With a crowd hovering near 1,000, the Twenty-Four Karat Club banquet was filled with the creme de la creme of the American diamond, gem and jewelry industry.

Among the many recognizable faces of this industry Who’s Who were New York diamantaires Ronnie Vanderlinden, Joseph Ambalu, David Schreiber, Reuven Kaufman and Maks Birnbach, Jerry Ehrenwald of IGI, Donna Baker of GIA, Peter Yantzer and John Politi of AGS Labs, as well as such notables as Hank Siegel of Hamilton Jewelers, Barry Nisguretsky of Verragio, Matthew Stuller and Harold Dupuy of Stuller, Terry Chandler of the Diamond Council of America, Bill Boyajian of the World Jewelry Center and entrepreneur Ofer Azrielant of Andin and Jewelry.com.

With entertainment provided by the legendary singer Frankie Valli and the Four Season’s party goers were rockin’ in the Grand Ballroom as the singer rocked the house with what many present might have seen as the evening’s theme song, ‘Oh, What a Night.’