Natural Diamond Council names Susie Dewey chief marketing officer

The Natural Diamond Council is betting that a luxury marketer can do what category messaging alone has not: make natural diamonds feel culturally necessary again. Susie Dewey, a six-year veteran of Tapestry, was named chief marketing officer effective April 27, 2026, with responsibility for the council’s global marketing and communications strategy from London.

The move matters because the council is no longer treating marketing as a regional exercise. Dewey will coordinate global strategy that had previously been handled by regional teams, while Kristina Buckley Kayel remains in place to oversee North America as managing director and chief marketing officer. In practice, that gives the council a more centralized voice at a moment when the natural diamond category is fighting for clarity, not just visibility.

Dewey arrives with a résumé built inside polished, brand-led retail: Coach, Net-a-Porter, Michael Kors, Topshop and Burberry all sit on her record. That background suggests the council is looking for more than a trade association pitch. It wants the kind of disciplined storytelling that can make a product feel desirable before it is sold, especially when lab-grown diamonds continue to pressure the category on price and perception.

Her appointment also extends the leadership reset that began when Amber Pepper became chief executive effective February 1, 2026. Pepper has said the council will focus on strengthening consumer demand and reinforcing the desirability of natural diamonds. The Natural Diamond Council, founded in 2015 as the Diamond Producers Association and rebranded in 2020, says it speaks for an industry that supports 10 million livelihoods across four continents. That is the scale of the story Dewey now has to sell.

The likely playbook is already visible. The council has leaned on research and category data, including its February 5, 2025 report with Tenoris, Natural Diamond Trends, A 2024 Overview. Related findings showed bridal diamond jewelry accounted for 33% of all natural diamond jewelry sales in 2024, while the average price of diamond jewelry sold for Valentine’s Day rose 2.7% to $2,066. Those figures matter because they point to the emotional and commercial core of the market: engagement, gifting and the still-premium positioning of natural stones.

Funding may matter just as much as messaging. In November 2024, industry groups were discussing a plan to raise an additional $65 million a year for the council, on top of a then-current $35 million budget, in order to restore the $100 million annual budget it had before Alrosa’s exit in February 2022. If that money materializes, Dewey will have a stronger platform. The real test, though, will be whether the council can turn polished campaigns into demand that shows up in bridal counters, holiday sales and the value shoppers still assign to a natural diamond.