Maurice Tempelsman is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lazare Kaplan International Inc., the largest cutter and polisher of "ideal cut" diamonds in the United States. He also is senior partner in the firm of Leon Tempelsman & Son, a company active in mining, investments and business development and minerals trading in Europe, Russia, Africa, Latin America, Canada and Asia. Mr. Tempelsman serves on the International Advisory Council of the American Stock Exchange.

Mr. Tempelsman served as Chairman of the Corporate Council on Africa until 2002 and is now Chairman Emeritus.

A member of the Board of Trustees of the Africa-America Institute (and a past Chairman), Mr. Tempelsman is also a Director of the National Democratic Institute of International Affairs, the Center for National Policy and the Business Council for International Understanding.

He is Chairman of the International Advisory Council of HAI and is an honorary trustee and an honorary member of the corporation of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and was named a Visitor to the Department of Classical Art of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Mr. Tempelsman has served on several Presidential Commissions including the President’s Commission for the Observance of Human Rights, the Citizen’s Advisory Board of Youth Opportunities and the National Highway Safety Advisory Committee, and was appointed by Governor Carey to the New York Council on International Business.

Born in Belgium in 1929, Mr. Tempelsman came to the United States as a child. He attended New York public schools and New York University. He has three children. Mr. Tempelsman is fluent in several languages and his interests are in the fields of history, archaeology, and sailing.