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In a restructuring in response to allegations of grade tampering, Ralph Destino, former chairman and president of Cartier, Inc., has been appointed chairman of the Gemological Institute of America, a newly created position with full responsibility for overseeing the operations and policies of the organization. William Boyajian, in his capacity as GIA's president, will now report to Destino. In an exclusive interview, Destino, who was the chairman of the GIA's board of directors, unveiled his plans for the immediate and long-term future of the organization and the changes in culture that will rebuild trust in the integrity of the GIA laboratory.

Modern Jeweler: Congratulations on the new position, though certainly the timing could've been better. Is this a job you even really want?

Ralph Destino: Thanks. It was never my intention to move from the outside position of chairman of the board of governors to this inside senior office, but the board felt it made sense, if we were to make the progress needed, that I step in.

MJ: A recent press release quoted you as speaking of "a new culture shaping at GIA." Could you elaborate?

RD: GIA has always had a very strong sense of its history, its integrity, and we've always had a code of conduct for employees in respect to that heritage. In the years gone by, there has been a tendency to take compliance for granted, and in that culture, maybe something less than full attention has been given to maintaining standards. In our new culture, both inside the company and in regard to those we deal with, we've underscored every single element of our code of conduct. To ensure everyone understands the seriousness with which we're doing that, we've taken a lot of steps. Employees guilty of impropriety have been terminated, and the investigation is not only ongoing, we intend to press that effort continually and indefinitely. It's now a constant monitoring of what goes on at that lab.

With respect to clients of our lab: Those who have violated our code of conduct have been informed that we will no longer grade their stones, and the proper authorities have been given their names. Finally, for the world at large, we've engaged the services of Ethics Point, a company that services the compliance needs of corporations. So much of this is about appearances, but like Caesar's wife, we have to be completely above suspicion.

MJ: If diamantaire donations are no longer part of the financial structure, much of the corporate culture will change. Have surrogate means of raising capital been explored?