Jeremy Pudney (pictured), who headed De Beers’ worldwide consumer advertising division for decades and helped turned it into a marketing colossus, died on Dec. 14. He was 82.

“Jeremy was passionate about the diamond dream, De Beers, and diamond consumers the world over,” says De Beers spokesperson David Johnson. “He pioneered the global expansion of De Beers’ marketing operations in Europe, and particularly in Japan. He is perhaps best known for the launch of the diamond anniversary band and eternity ring.”

Pudney was the son of poet, novelist, and children’s book writer John Pudney and Family magazine editor Crystal Herbert (later Hale). His maternal grandfather, Sir Alan “A.P.” Herbert, was a novelist, humorist, playwright, and law reform activist.

“The Pudney household was a very creative one,” said a family history provided to JCK. “Jeremy remembers that his father would read the children’s books he was writing to him chapter by chapter.”

At school, Pudney met Anthony Oppenheimer, the son of Sir Philip Oppenheimer, then a director of De Beers and head of its all-powerful sales arm, the Central Selling Organisation (CSO)—two titles Anthony would later hold.

As they became friends and eventual roommates, Pudney met Anthony’s sister, Valerie. The two started dating on her 18th birthday.

Following service in the British Navy, Pudney worked at S.H. Benson, then one of London’s leading advertising agencies. Getting restless, Pudney asked Philip for help with contacts at “one of the larger American advertising agencies, which were all the rage at the time,” according to the family history.

Philip told him that De Beers was considering starting an ad department.

“Jeremy [saw] the potential of the job, and the thought of being involved from the very start of the process was a very attractive prospect,” said the history.

He joined the company in 1962, and married Valerie two years later. The couple divorced in 1977, but Pudney stayed attached to De Beers.

“In Jeremy’s early years with the company, there was little experience in influencing the end consumer,” the history said. “[Former chairman] Harry Oppenheimer had already hired the advertising agency N.W. Ayer to start this work in 1938, but a ‘normal client-agency relationship’ had yet to be established.”

Upon Pudney’s arrival, De Beers only advertised in the United States. He set out to bring diamonds to Japan, with huge success: In 1967, less than 5% of Japan brides-to-be received a diamond engagement ring. By 1981, that number had risen to 60%.

Pudney is also credited with creating De Beers’ network of Diamond Promotion Services and Diamond Information Centers, which spread the diamond message to the trade and consumers, respectively.

At its peak, Pudney’s consumer and advertising division was active in 34 countries and had an annual budget of $220 million.

“[We have expanded] from myself, an assistant, and a secretary to a team of 46 people…who plan and coordinate the efforts of over 390 staff in our J. Walter Thompson network worldwide,” he told the Rapaport Diamond Report in 1997. “The sophistication and skills of our team have evolved with the times, as they have had to.”

In 1985, he recruited, according to the family history, a “young, efficient, thoughtful, shy American,” Stephen Lussier, who then worked at N.W. Ayer. Lussier now serves as De Beers’ executive vice president, consumer markets.

Pudney became a member of De Beers’ board in 1992—something that was not in his “wildest dreams” when he joined the company, he is quoted as saying in the family history. He retired in 1999, turning the marketing reins over to Lussier—who by that point had married Anthony Oppenheimer’s daughter Sophie, Pudney’s former niece by marriage.

After he left De Beers, Pudney headed and was involved in various sailing organizations.

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