Martin Rapaport is an American entrepreneur

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

 and founder of the Rapaport Diamond Report. Rapaport is a maverick within the diamond

Diamond

In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...

 industry, and is often recognized for his signature bow tie. He is a member of the board of Jewelers for Children and an early proponent of the Kimberley Process

Kimberley Process

Kimberley Process Certification Scheme is the process designed to certify the origin of rough diamonds from sources which are free of conflict funded by diamond production....

.

He also hosts the Rapaport International Diamond Conference, annually in New York, that often serves as an industry forum between NGO

Non-governmental organization

A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...

s, the jewelry industry, governmental agencies, and diamond industry interests.
Martin Rapaport began his work in diamonds as a cleaver and rough sorter in Antwerp, Belgium.