Gina Athans, the new ‘face of tanzanite’, was there to greet them and launch an evening devoted to extolling this lustrous violet blue stone, as yet found in only one place in the world, a mine near Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania with only 20 years of estimated life.

Mike Nunn, the company’s mellifluous chief executive officer who initiated tanzanite’s crucial marketing drive, recalled how difficult it was to find the right candidate to represent the qualities Tanzanite One sought to be associated with the stone. In Gina, boasted designer-stubbled Nunn, he and his colleagues had found someone who was not only attractive but intelligent and, as an added bonus, African too.

Now, Ian Harebottle is taking over the chief executive role from his fellow South African Nunn, ‘to take the company to the next stage’. We can expect to see much more of Gina Athans.