From Coach to Carats: How a Luxury Brand Veteran Plans to Reinvigorate Natural Diamond Demand

IN ITS NEW CEO, Amber Pepper, the Natural Diamond Council has a veteran storyteller who understands that luxury and authenticity must go hand in hand to appeal to today’s consumer. Pepper was most recently the chief marketing officer of luxury e-tailer Mytheresa, but her broader resumé runs through Tapestry (which houses Coach, Kate Spade New York and Stuart Weitzman), Harrods, and international brand strategy. Based in London, Pepper is a consumer-obsessed brand builder, which may be exactly what NDC and the industry at large need right now.

I sat down with Pepper recently to talk about what drew her to the role, what she sees as the NDC’s most urgent priorities, and what she’s already working on. The conversation ranged from consumer education and retail partnerships to governance reform and cultural relevance — and it ended with the announcement of something new: a World Diamond Day.

Pepper’s path to the diamond industry ran through some of the most recognizable names in international luxury. “My whole career I’ve worked across luxury, fashion and retail, always with a real consumer focus,” she told me. “I worked at Tapestry in the U.S. and was part of the Coach turnaround story, so I have a good understanding of the U.S. market as well as international markets.” Her roles have spanned commercial strategy, e-commerce and brand storytelling — and through all of it, one question drove her work: who is our target consumer, and how do they connect to the brand?

From Coach to Cartier Country

That lens on authenticity is why the NDC opportunity struck her as a fantastic opportunity. “If you work on luxury brands, you spend a lot of time thinking about authenticity and what that means in connection to your brand,” she said. “When I was approached by the NDC, it hit me — diamonds are the ultimate authentic story. The emotional value, the age and legacy of the actual stone, is so rooted in authenticity and storytelling.

“I had a very emotional response when I was first approached about the role,” she said. “The concept of authenticity versus imitation is fascinating to me, and I fell in love with natural diamonds through the process of researching the role.” The competitive landscape — lab-grown diamonds having gained meaningful market share, a consumer base skewing younger and harder to reach — didn’t deter her. “The landscape is difficult, but that’s what’s exciting about the role.”

Understanding the NDC’s purpose is essential to understanding Pepper’s strategy. The organization doesn’t represent a single brand or mining company — it represents the diamond industry as a whole, which shapes every decision it makes. “The NDC needs to be brand-agnostic and partner-agnostic and has to represent this multigenerational, rich industry,” she said. “The opportunity for the NDC to be a voice for the industry and gain real traction is so important.”

The Knowledge Gap Problem

Chief among her early priorities is consumer education — specifically, closing the knowledge gap between natural diamonds and lab-grown alternatives. “If you’re a consumer who doesn’t know a lot about diamonds and you’re going into a retailer trying to understand the difference, it’s very hazy and it depends on the salesperson you get,” she said. “Ultimately, we’re talking about two very different products, and it’s important that people understand how to explain that.”

She sees the NDC as uniquely positioned to help retailers to better educate consumers trying to decide between natural and lab-grown diamonds. “We can work with retailers to understand consumer needs,” Pepper said. “They know their consumer and how the consumer shops with them. We need to be the organization that helps them in the way they see fit.” She pointed to the NDC’s Diamond Learning Center and Premier Retailer accreditation program as evidence of real promise — smart initiatives that have been constrained by limited budgets. That’s changing: the NDC has secured a significant budget increase from last year, which she sees as an opportunity to scale what’s already working. “We see some real green shoots there and real opportunity.”

The goal, she said, is simple: arm consumers with enough information to make an empowered choice. “Ultimately, I’m confident that if we clarify the difference in a way that’s really understood, and drive desire by working on these culturally relevant conversations, we will drive natural diamond demand.”

Outsider Advantage

Pepper joined the NDC as a self-described industry outsider — which she views as an asset. “I’ve been trying to meet the right partners, listening and learning,” she said. Her first week on the job, she was in the room for the Luanda Accord 2.0 meeting, a gathering of diamond-producing countries and industry groups that support the NDC’s mission. It was, she acknowledged, a lot to absorb immediately — but also perfectly timed. Namibia signed on at that meeting, and India’s Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council and the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre have signed letters of intent to support the organization.

In the short term, she’s focused on securing that funding pipeline. “In a market the size of the diamond market, we have a huge amount of work to do, and the budgets are small,” she said. “We need to be driving overall category marketing investment.” Longer term, she wants to examine governance — how the organization is structured, who it represents, and how it makes decisions. “There’s a longer-term need to structure the governance to represent the industry,” she said. “Going back to how do we pull the industry with us and make sure we’re a trusted voice.”

Becoming a trusted voice not only within the industry but with consumers is key to NDC’s mission, says Pepper, because trust can help that message to spread organically. “I’m a strong believer that the most powerful campaigns are when people are sharing your story for you, because the content has become part of their story and their dialogue,” she said. “We need to get this spread through the right channels.”

Pepper knows that building cultural relevance, reforming governance and expanding the NDC’s funding base will take time — “but there’s also a pressing need to get short-term results as we do so,” she said.

For an industry that has sometimes struggled to find its footing against the rising tide of lab-grown, a new CEO who speaks the language of brand storytelling, consumer psychology and authentic luxury may be exactly the right voice at the right moment. Amber Pepper isn’t from the jewelry world — but she’s clearly done her homework. And if her instincts are right, the natural diamond industry’s best storytelling may still be ahead of it.