In May 2018, the De Beers Group shocked the diamond industry when it announced it was launching a new fashion jewelry brand of laboratory-grown (synthetic) diamonds. The reaction was swift as people sought to understand the company's motivations: was it a “huge gamble” or a “Machiavellian...

In September 2014, Tom Montgomery (SVP of Strategic Initiatives at the De Beers Group) and his team launched a pilot program in the United States to explore the $1 billion market for pre-owned (recycled) diamonds. According to Montgomery, the motivation for the pilot program was to improve the...