Retail Jeweller Names 30 Brightest Young Jewelry Talents Under 30 for 2026

Retail Jeweller's annual Rising Stars programme has never been merely a list. Published on 9 March 2026 and written by Ruth Faulkner, the 2026 edition of Rising Stars 30 Under 30, presented in association with TH March, represents something more considered: a cross-industry survey of the people most likely to define what British jewellery looks like in the decades ahead. Thirty individuals, all aged 30 or under, are profiled with short biographies and recent work highlights, spanning every corner of the trade from design and manufacturing through to retail, sales, marketing and PR.

The breadth of that remit matters. Too often, industry recognition gravitates toward designers alone, as though a jewellery career that unfolds behind a sales counter or inside a marketing department is somehow less worthy of attention. This list refuses that hierarchy. The 2026 cohort includes founders, gemologists, store managers, sales consultants and brand builders, each profiled on the strength of their specific contribution rather than the prestige of their job title.

The Designers and Designer-Makers

Among those recognised in the Designers/Designer-makers category is Jessica Awaritefe, a silversmith and jeweller aged 30. Her name appears in the Retail Jeweller feature in two slightly different forms, suggesting a stylistic distinction between her legal name and her professional styling as Jessica Awari-Tefé. The detail is minor but telling: it speaks to the kind of careful personal branding that characterises this generation of maker-practitioners, for whom name, mark and identity are part of the work itself.

Leshian McLeod, also 27, brings a perspective to jewellery design that is genuinely unusual. As the founder and director of Woman of Valéur, a London-based brand now in its third year, McLeod has built a business around what she describes as intentional, everyday jewellery, with engraving completed entirely in-house. That last point is not incidental. In an era when personalisation has become a marketing checkbox rather than a craft commitment, McLeod's decision to keep engraving in-house means she retains direct control over execution, legibility and finish. Woman of Valéur operates on a disciplined core product system, with engraving positioned as a central design feature rather than a novelty add-on. Before jewellery, McLeod worked in public sector project management, and that background shows: she brings operational clarity and structural rigour to a growing business while also using her founder platform to share accessible jewellery education beyond traditional industry channels.

Retail and Sales

Ursula Pache, 27, is a senior sales consultant at Titcombe Bespoke Jewellery, and her profile is one of the more detailed portraits in the captured excerpt from the feature. In three and a half years with the business, she has moved well beyond the standard scope of a sales role. She handles bespoke quotations and designs, assists clients with high-value pieces, and has consistently driven sales growth year on year through a combination of technical knowledge, product expertise and what the profile describes as a natural rapport with clients. That last quality is harder to teach than gemological grading or metal specifications, which makes it worth noting. Pache also manages the retailer's social media presence, where she has achieved more than 20% organic growth through creative content, demonstrating the kind of dual fluency, craft knowledge paired with digital instinct, that independent jewellery retailers increasingly need from their teams.

Olivia Stewart-Stead, aged 30, is recognised as store manager at Fitzgerald Jewellers. Her profile, though not fully captured in the available excerpt, places her among the Rising Stars in a management capacity, acknowledging the leadership dimension of retail as much as the sales floor performance.

The Industry Pipeline: BCU's School of Jewellery

The Rising Stars list does not exist in isolation. It reflects a talent pipeline that, in recent years, has drawn significantly from formal gemological and design education. In June 2024, Birmingham City University's School of Jewellery reported that six of its graduates had been named in that year's Retail Jeweller Rising Stars 30 Under 30 list, a cohort that illustrates the range of careers available to jewellery graduates and the diversity of routes the industry rewards.

Monika Jockute completed a BSc (Hons) in Gemmology and Jewellery Studies at BCU before going on to study an MSc in Management and International Business at the university's Business School. She joined Sonny's Jewellers as a part-time sales assistant in 2019 and has since risen to Store Manager, a trajectory that earned her recognition in the Retail, Buying and Merchandising category of the Rising Stars list. Her path, from dual-qualified graduate to retail leadership, is a model for how gemological education can be combined with commercial ambition.

Tony Bellefontaine graduated from BCU's BSc (Hons) Gemmology and Jewellery Studies programme in 2022, receiving the Fellows Award for the course's valuation module. He is currently a gemmologist at the Birmingham Assay Office and working towards accredited valuer status, a technical specialism that sits at the intersection of science, history and legal accountability. The valuation pathway is often underrepresented in industry recognition, making his inclusion in the Rising Stars all the more significant.

Andrew Cowley graduated from BCU's BA (Hons) Jewellery and Silversmithing course in 2018, and by 2021 had co-founded Bespoke Quarter, where he now serves as director. His trajectory, from design graduate to business founder within three years of leaving university, reflects a generation of jewellers who are building independent commercial structures rather than seeking employment within established houses.

Charlotte Rose, who completed her BSc (Hons) Gemmology and Jewellery Studies at BCU in 2023, has since become the first female Vice President at London Diamond Bourse. The title carries weight in an institution that sits at the heart of the global diamond trade, and her appointment marks a meaningful milestone for gender representation at the senior levels of the industry's trading infrastructure.

Rebecca Skeels, Course Director and Senior Lecturer in BCU's School of Jewellery, captured the ethos behind these career outcomes precisely. "The graduates are proactive and hardworking, utilising their skills and continuing to learn and develop to allow them to be successful in their careers," she said. The point is worth dwelling on: the individuals recognised by the Rising Stars programme are not simply talented. They are building expertise incrementally, across years, combining formal qualifications with practical experience in ways that compound over time.

What the 2026 List Represents

The Retail Jeweller Rising Stars 30 Under 30 is not a celebration of precocity for its own sake. The youngest entrants in the 2026 cohort are 27; the oldest are 30. These are not prodigies who arrived fully formed but professionals who have spent the better part of a decade developing the specific competencies their sectors demand. The list's value lies precisely in that specificity: a jewellery industry that can produce store managers with social media literacy, silversmiths with distinctive personal brands, gemmologists with valuation credentials, and founder-designers with operational discipline is an industry that is building seriously for its future.

The 2026 Rising Stars, presented in association with TH March, will be watched closely. These are the people who will be running studios, buying departments, flagship stores and independent brands when the next decade's recognition lists are drawn up. Several of them already are.