ANGLO American’s diamond subsidiary De Beers is to get a new CEO, Bruce Cleaver, who will replace Philippe Mellier on July 1.

Anglo said in a statement on Friday that Mellier, who has been the CEO of De Beers for the past five years, had decided to step down.

Cleaver was De Beers’s co-acting CEO before Mellier’s appointment in 2011. He was appointed Anglo’s group director of strategy and business development last year.

Anglo’s CEO of base metals and minerals Duncan Wanblad would add strategy and business development to his responsibilities, the group’s CEO Mark Cutifani said in Friday’s statement.

Cutifani said Wanblad’s “experience leading two of our three core businesses and his critical role in streamlining the group’s other mining and industrial interests position him well to shape our longer-term opportunities”.

“This is a further step in our consolidation of the senior team, following the creation of the bulk commodities group under Seamus French.”

Mellier said in Friday’s statement: “As I committed at the outset in 2011, I envisaged a five-year plan with the team and the board to reset De Beers on its current path. Having steered through some of the diamond industry’s toughest times and with the market showing signs of recovery, now is the right time for me to pass the baton to the next generation.

“I have worked closely with Bruce Cleaver throughout and I have no doubt about his abilities and experience to lead De Beers on the next stage of its journey as the world’s leading diamond company.”