(Adds details on continued director search, context,
background)
Jan 13 (Reuters) - Dominion Diamond Corp DDC.TO said on
Wednesday its executive chairman will step down and be replaced
by Jim Gowans, a mining industry veteran, who will take over as
non-executive chairman no later than April 30.
The Canadian diamond producer, which has been under pressure
from an activist shareholder group, also said Josef Vejvoda has
been appointed to the board. Vejvoda is a portfolio manager at
Toronto-based K2 & Associates, which led the activist group.
The board will continue its "existing search process" to
identify an additional independent director to join it, lead
director Daniel Jarvis said in a statement.
Gowans was chief executive of De Beers Canada from 2006 to
2010. More recently he was co-president and chief operating
officer of Barrick Gold Corp ABX.TO , the world's biggest gold
producer.
The activist group, which have been unhappy with Dominion's
shareholder returns, revealed on Dec. 21 that it had bought a
5.4 percent stake in the company, which is the world's third
biggest diamond producer.
Dominion Chairman Robert Gannicott alluded in the statement
to recent "medical challenges". Gannicott returned from medical
leave last July but at the time relinquished his role as CEO.