In his 27 years as CEO of De Beers, from 1957 to 1984, Oppenheimer became one of the world's wealthiest men. During his tenure, De Beers controlled between 80 and 90 percent of the world's diamond supply. His many companies, most notably Anglo-American Trust and De Beers Consolidated Mines, at one point constituted 54 percent of the South African stock market's total assets. He was even one of the first white people who Nelson Mandela wanted to see upon his release from Robben Island Prison -- although this was perhaps more a sign of Oppenheimer's willingness to recognize the significance of the African National Congress for the smooth running of his business than testament to his great moral virtue.

Oppenheimer inherited control of De Beers from his father, Sir Ernest, who seized the reins of the diamond empire of Cecil Rhodes -- eponymous founder of Rhodesia and the prestigious Rhodes Scholarships -- in 1929, mere months before the U.S. stock market crash. Although it was Sir Ernest who built De Beers into a worldwide cartel, it was Harry Oppenheimer who strengthened his father's legacy through his ingenious sculpting of the public's demand for the rock. Since inheriting the chairmanship two years ago, Harry's son, Nicky, has been charged with maintaining the cartel's market domination while appearing to offer the transparency a modern business demands.

But Nicky has a rough road ahead. The growing outcry against the marketing of so-called conflict diamonds or blood diamonds -- defined by one human rights organization as "diamonds that originate from areas under control of forces that are in opposition to elected and internationally recognized governments" -- expanding antitrust legislation in both the United States and Europe, and the rise of new diamond suppliers outside De Beers' realm of control are combining to undermine the company's hitherto unchallenged domination of the world diamond market. But never fear -- following his father's example, Nicky Oppenheimer hopes to market De Beers out of its current troubles.

Despite its elite status, the diamond, which can be found in abundance from southern Africa to Australia to northern Canada, is not the rarest of gems. With no intrinsic value, all a gem-quality diamond has to offer is the perception of its preciousness. As a symbol of eternal love, the tradition of the diamond engagement ring has become so pervasive that it's hard to believe that this is a fairly recent phenomenon. And an extremely calculated one -- the result of a marketing campaign developed at a time when the demand for diamonds had sunk to an all-time low and an increasing supply threatened the precious (as opposed to semiprecious) nature of the stones.

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