Vipul Shah Is New GJEPC Chairman

(IDEX Online News) – Vipul Shah, CEO of Asian Star Co. was elected the new chairman of the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) at a meeting of the Committee of Administration in New Delhi today. Jewelry manufacturer and exporter Pankaj Parekh from Kolkata was elected Vice Chairman.

The two take over responsibilities from the outgoing chairman Rajiv Jain and Vice Chairman Sanjay Kothari with immediate effect. They will hold office for the next two years.

Shah has been instrumental in turning Asian Star from a purely diamond manufacturing firm into a vertically integrated powerhouse that also manufactures, distributes and retails jewelry. He has been a strong supporter of initiatives to promote the industry and has been the Convener of the Banking, Insurance & Taxation (BITC) Committee of the GJEPC.

Parekh, who qualified as a mechanical engineer in 1967, comes from a family that has been in the jewelry business for several generations. He switched from a career in engineering to the family business in 1988, focusing on the export business only.

He was the first person to be elected from Eastern India to the Central Managing Committee of the GJEPC. Since then, he has held several posts in the Central and Regional Committees of the Council, and is now the Chairman of the Eastern Region.

In 2000, he accompanied a delegation to Israel led by the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Jyoti Basu and MP Somnath Chatterjee who was the Chairman of the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC).

In 2001, the WBIDC inducted him as a member of the board of its planned Manikanchan gems and jewelry industrial park. He then played a key role in creation of Manikanchan, which was inaugurated in November 2003.