RAPAPORT... Queen Elizabeth's annual birthday honors list included a few of the U.K.'s jewelry industry members for 2013. Topping the list was Laurence Graff, the founder Graff Diamonds, who received an OBE, or Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for his ''services to the jewelry industry.'' MBEs, meaning Members of the Order of the British Empire, were awarded to Rebecca (Bec) Astley-Clarke, the founder of Astley Clarke Luxury Jewellery, and Pippa Small, a jewelry artisan who is also a medical anthropologist, for their services to the jewelry industry and charitable causes. Two of the eight current Wardens, effectively non executive directors, of The Birmingham Assay Office were also recognized.
Former Birmingham Assay Office chairman Kay Alexander received an MBE for services to broadcasting and to charity in the West Midlands. Warden Wade Cleone Lyn, the founder of Cleone Foods, is also a board member for the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP and he received a CBE, or Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to business in the West Midlands. The Assay's office chairman, Kate Hartigan, said, “This is wonderful news. We are immensely proud of Kay and Wade and delighted that the important and long lasting contribution they have both made to the West Midlands community has been recognized in this way. Their honors are very well deserved.”
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