Martin Rapaport is the founder and chairman of the Rapaport Group, an international network of companies providing added-value services that support the development of ethical, transparent, competitive, and efficient diamond and jewelry markets.

Established in 1976, the group has more than 20,000 clients in over 120 countries. Group activities include Rapaport Information Services, providing the Rapaport benchmark Diamond Price List, as well as research, analysis, and news; RapNet, the world’s largest diamond trading network, with daily listings of over 1.7 million diamonds valued at more than $8 billion; and Rapaport Trading and Auction Services, the world’s largest recycler of diamonds.

The Rapaport Group has 150 team members with offices in in New York, Las Vegas, Antwerp, Ramat Gan, Jerusalem, Mumbai, Surat, Dubai, and Hong Kong. Additional information is available at rapaport.com.

Martin has been a strong advocate for an ethical diamond trade. He visited Sierra Leone in 2000 at the request of the US State Department, was one of the founders of the Kimberley Process (KP), and was instrumental in the passing of the US Clean Diamond Act when his Guilt Trip article was read into the Congressional Record. He is an advocate for fair trade diamonds and involved in Sierra Leone where he is helping establish the Peace Diamond Village.

Martin was born in Miami Beach, Florida in 1952 to parents that survived the holocaust. In 1975 he began his career as an apprentice diamond cleaver in Antwerp Belgium and later moved to New York where he established the Rapaport Diamond Corporation. Martin and his wife Rivka married in 1980 and have ten children. They currently reside in Jerusalem, Israel.

Martin is a graduate of Bar-Ilan University in Israel, he is also a Harvard University Business School alumni after completion of Harvard’s three-year OPM executive education program.

Martin has served as a director of the New York Diamond Dealers Club and Jewelers for Children Charity Fund. Rapaport is a member of the New York Diamond Dealers Club, US Diamond Manufacturers and Importers Association, American Gem Society, Jewelers of America, American Gem Trade Association, Israel Diamond Exchange, Israel Diamond Manufacturers Association, Belgium Diamond Bourse, Indian Gem and Jewelry Promotion Council, Dubai Diamond Exchange, and Diamond Federation of Hong Kong.