Deborah Besemer has stepped down as CEO of the Lexington, MA-based jewelry customization business Gemvara, Boston Globe blogger Scott Kirsner first reported earlier this week. The company renamed itself last month from Paragon Lake, and shifted its virtual jewelry customization business model from being centered around in-store computer screens to a website that targets consumers more directly, a move the requires someone with that experience at the top of the company, Mass High Tech reported. The company’s founder, Matt Lauzon, will take the reins while the company searches for a new chief executive, a process that Besemer will advise part-time. Besemer, who spoke to Bob of her plans to shift the company to e-commerce when she joined last year, will also remain on the company’s board.
Author: Erin Kutz
Erin Kutz has a background in covering business, politics and general news. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University. Erin previously worked in the Boston bureau of Reuters, where she wrote articles on the investment management and mutual fund industries. While in college, she researched for USA Today reporter Jayne O’Donnell’s book, Gen Buy: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings Are Revolutionizing Retail. She also spent a semester in Washington, DC, reporting Capitol Hill stories as a correspondent for two Connecticut newspapers and interning in the Money section of USA Today, where she assisted with coverage on the retail and small business beats. Erin got her first taste of reporting at Boston University’s independent student newspaper, as a city section reporter and fact checker and editor of the paper’s weekly business section.
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