“Women of the Diamond Industry” focuses on the issue of gender equality along the entire diamond and jewelry supply chain. The series provides a platform for women in the industry to tell their own stories and to describe the particular challenges they have faced in their careers.
The 25th article in the series is authored by Charlotte Rose, Vice President of the London Diamond Bourse. She is also a Founder and Director of Solomons & Rose, a UK-based natural diamonds, fine jewelry and valuation company, and the Founder and Head of Fine Jewelry at Furlong, its newly created auction division.
MY DIAMOND STORY
Charlotte Rose at the UK’s Retail Jewellery Awards in 2025.
FEBRUARY 5, 2026
For as long as I can remember, diamonds have been part of my life. But it has taken years and a great deal of living to understand that my relationship with this industry is not really about stones at all. It is about people, resilience, and learning how to claim space in a world that was not necessarily built with you in mind.
I grew up in my family’s jewelry store. When I was 13, my grandfather gave me my first job there – a Saturday position as the tea girl. I earned £10 a day, which at the time was very good money for someone my age.
What began as series of small tasks slowly evolved into a job with real responsibility. Before I knew it, I had moved from watching, learning and making cups of tea, to becoming a member of staff in my own right. But as a teenager, I didn’t always appreciate what I had achieved. For, while my friends were meeting up on Saturdays, I was working. I remember feeling frustration at missing out. I couldn’t yet see what I was gaining in return.
Those days were spent watching my father work. He is a born salesman, and an entirely self-taught bench jeweler and watchmaker. His talent always seemed limitless to me. He has an instinctive ability to fix things – whether it is a broken clasp, a pocket watch that has mysteriously started skipping a beat, right down to his friends’ cars that had broken down. They would call me to see if my dad could help rather than the garage. He never rushed, never cut corners, and treated every task with the same care, no matter how big or small.
My dad’s work ethic left a remarkable impression on me, but even more lasting is his kindness. He treats people with genuine decency, regardless of status or circumstance. It never mattered to him what the job was – everyone receives the same attention, the same effort and the same respect. That sense of fairness has shaped not only the way I work in this industry, but the way I move through life more generally.
In-built strength and resilience
My mother’s influence runs just as deep. She is an avid jewelry collector. As the wife of a jeweler I suppose that this was inevitable. But her collection is extraordinary, and even now, when she opens her jewelry box, I still feel a thrill at the chance to try pieces on. Thankfully, she is wonderfully generous and often lends me pieces to wear to events, albeit with very clear instructions about their safe and timely return!
But her influence goes far beyond my appreciation for the beauty of jewelry. My mother is a woman of remarkable resilience. No matter what life placed in her path, and it has placed a lot, she always has presented herself with composure, elegance, and grace. She was born with a rare genetic condition called Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency, and today, at age 57, is awaiting a double lung transplant.
As a child, I didn’t recognize her in-built strength. I simply thought of her as my “glamorous mum.” Only later did I understand how much resolve it takes to remain steady when things are difficult. Her resilience, and her refusal to let anything slip even in the face of adversity, taught me that toughness does not need to announce itself. It doesn’t have to be loud or visible to be powerful. Sometimes, it is simply means continuing to stand.
The author and her father, Mark Wheate, in the family’s jewelry store in 2021.
I speak about my parents and the lessons they gave me because my career did not begin with titles or positions, but with values. Long before I truly understood diamonds and even this industry, I learned about integrity, consistency, kindness and resilience, by watching how they lived and worked. Those lessons shaped the way I approach people, and the way I handle responsibility and pressure. They continue to guide me in an industry built on trust.
My story cannot be told through professional milestones alone, because everything I have built rests on foundations laid long before I ever stepped foot into the industry
When life imitates art
I am a girl who believes in love and romance. There is a line from the 2001 film Moulin Rouge, in which the French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec says “I know about art and love, because I long for it with every fiber of my being.”
I feel like those words were written for me, and perhaps that is why I am so deeply passionate about natural diamonds. To me, they are art in their purest form – born of time and pressure, carrying beauty, heritage and meaning. They represent love, romance and continuity.
It is why it seems so deeply ironic that the breakdown of my marriage is what ultimately led me to where I find myself today.
When I was 25, my marriage ended unexpectedly. Overnight, I became a single parent, living in a house that no longer felt like home, with no real sense of what my future would look like. The pressure was immense. Suddenly, I was the only person responsible for providing for my little boy Charlie, who was just three years old at the time.
I knew I had to act, and that was building something that could not be taken away from the two of us.
Fortuitously, I learned about a gemology course at university. I went to the open day with my father, more out of curiosity than expectation, not believing for a moment that a strict study regime would be feasible. But I still remember my parents saying to me, “Charlotte, we’ll make it work.” Their belief gave me courage when I had very little left.
So, I applied and received an unconditional offer to study Gemology & Jewelry Studies at Birmingham University. It was the first step in rebuilding my life.
The author and her son Charlie at the Dubai Diamond Exchange in 2025.
A milestone year
My second year at university felt momentous in every sense. First, I was quietly determined to graduate with distinction the following year, so I gave it my all to get the best grades possible. And, spoiler alert, I ultimately graduated with first class honors.
But also that summer, in my second year at Birmingham University, I made another decision that would change everything again. I applied for a six-week role with the Natural Diamond Council, running its Assure Program, which was hosted at the London Diamond Bourse.
It was my role to guide retailers through each of about 20 diamond verification instruments, explaining how they worked, demonstrating their capabilities, and in general educating them about the importance of protecting the diamond pipeline by screening for synthetics. For the first time, I was an educator and felt that my voice carried weight.
It also was my real introduction to the London Diamond Bourse and its membership, of which I knew very little, other than a few colleagues mentioning it in passing.
I was welcomed into the bourse with genuine warmth. Members would stop to chat every day, sharing stories, opinions, and knowledge. Many of them have since become like family to me.
Very quickly, I began to see the potential for the bourse to become more than it was. With around 200 members then, it was a place where every person had a story to tell and knowledge they were willing to share. It had on site everything to make running a diamond business easy – diamond screeners, photography equipment, microscopes, scales, desk lights, viewing rooms and more. It was a purpose-built office space and I couldn’t understand why so many people had not heard of it. But instinctively I understood that it was precisely that lack of public profile that needed to be addressed.
The author and her parents, Mark and Lorraine Wheate, at her graduation from Birmingham City University.
Going into business, while at school
Returning to education at that point felt overwhelming. I was older than many of my peers, trying to balance lectures, deadlines, work and motherhood.
I would often lie awake at night wondering whether I was stretching myself too thin. Slowly however, university became my anchor. It gave my days structure, and provided me with something even more important – tangible proof that I was still capable of growth, and able to build a future that belonged to me.
It was there that I met my business partner, Seth Solomons. He was a “mature” student too – far more mature than me, I might add – and we connected almost instantly. We bonded over shared ambition, curiosity and, most importantly, a love for natural diamonds.
Seth and I decided to start a small business together alongside our university studies. We began selling vintage and antique jewelry online and at weekend antique fairs. I still remember our first sale, a tiny silver charm, and the excitement it brought, completely out of proportion to its size.
From there, things began to grow. Orders started going out every day, and then to clients further and further afield. Suddenly we were shipping jewelry all over the world.
The author and her long-time business partner Seth Solomons.
Becoming a diamond bourse member
When the six weeks came to an end, I realized I didn’t want to leave. I applied to become a member of the London Diamond Bourse, and after the application and interview process, I got straight to work on making the changes I thought necessary. I began giving talks at industry events, representing the bourse at trade shows and increasing our social media presence.
During this time, I realized there was a pressing need to support the next generation, and the bourse was the perfect place to do this. I was co-opted onto its Board of Directors with an idea I felt strongly about, which was creating a mentor program.
We set young industry associates up with members of the bourse who were willing to be their mentors in specific areas of the business. Many of those young people have since gone on to establish their own businesses, find roles in the sector that truly suited them, and in many cases become members of the bourse themselves.
Education had become central to my professional identity. I had seen first-hand how empowering knowledge can be, especially in an industry that has historically been opaque.
I became committed to demystifying diamonds and raising standards – not to challenge tradition, but to protect it. I continued to serve a consultant, working alongside the Natural Diamond Council, and Trading Standards in the UK, which are local authority services that ensure goods and services are safe, fairly priced and accurately described. Our goal was to ensure diamonds were being presented to the public with the correct terminology, and in particular protecting consumers from being sold non-disclosed or improperly described synthetic diamonds.
We worked to educate retailers up and down the country on how to protect consumer confidence in the natural diamond industry, and most importantly on how to protect their businesses and their diamond pipeline integrity.
An industry educator, the author addressing a Jewellery Collective event in 2024.
Vice President of the London Diamond Bourse
In 2024, I was appointed Vice President of the London Diamond Bourse – only the second woman worldwide ever to have been named to such a position, and the first in the United Kingdom.
The significance of that moment took time to settle. I thought of the young girl in her parent’s shop, the student rebuilding her life, the woman carrying responsibility that at times felt too heavy to continue to bear. It was a role I had earned in my own right.
For me, becoming Vice President was never about breaking barriers loudly or forcing my way into a room. It was about opening doors gently, but with resolve, finding my place, and then holding those doors open for others.
Being a woman in this space isn’t something taken for granted. There are rooms where I am the only female present, conversations where I have to prove myself before being heard, and moments where assumptions were made about me, even before I had spoken. I remember once wiping the cabinets down during a quiet moment at a trade show, and being asked by another exhibitor who walked past whether I could do the same in his booth once I was done. He clearly assumed I was the cleaner, and couldn’t have been more apologetic after I told him I owned the company.
But I rarely let such instances upset me. I learned quite early on that knowledge is my strongest ally, and that, when you truly understand your field, cognition speaks louder than any preconception.
You also can never underestimate the power of networking, not just from a business perspective, but from an educational standpoint. Most importantly, I deliberately surround myself with people whose knowledge and understanding are far greater than mine. I listen and absorb from them as much as I can.
Alan Cohen, the former London Diamond Bourse president, is one of those people. Learning from him has been a privilege not only because of his technical expertise, but because of his judgement and integrity. His mentorship, and more importantly his friendship have reinforced my belief that mastery carries responsibility, and that knowledge is most valuable when shared generously.
The author, flanked by David Troostwyk (left), President of the London Diamond Bourse, and Alan Cohen, his predecessor as bourse president, during the World Federation of Diamond Bourses’ congress in Israel in 2023.
The race to the finish line, but not the end
I recently established Furlong Auction House, as division of my company Solomons & Rose. It, too, is based in London’s Hatton Garden and it specializes in the sale of fine jewelry. The establishment of the new enterprise felt less like a business decision and more like a natural culmination of everything I have lived and learned.
After years being immersed in jewelry, diamonds, education, valuation and advocacy, I felt a growing pull to create something of my own. It wanted it to be a place that honors history, traditional values and trust, while still meeting the expectations of a modern-day client.
I had seen how impersonal and intimidating parts of the auction world can feel. I wanted Furlong to be different, by offering a genuinely personable service, grounded in expertise and care. Its name itself came instinctively, drawn from a love of horse racing and the British countryside.
In horse racing, a furlong is an eighth of a mile or 200-meter section along the racetrack, and in popular racing tradition the “final furlong” is that stretch where the thoroughbred breaks for victory. It’s the point where preparation, stamina and resolve are tested.
I want the new venture to be my “final furlong” – the moment where my years of hard work, pressure, and perseverance begin to come into their own.
The author (right) and Elodie Daguzan, World Diamond Council’s Executive Director, in Venice, Italy, in January 2026.
My race to the finish line has not been a frantic sprint, but a measured and confident gallop. I am finally in sight of the winner’s enclosure, not because the work is done, but because I am building something that is lasting, on my own terms. It’s a business shaped by values, experience and belief, and most importantly by a career I can be proud to ride home on.
My diamond story is not necessarily a conventional one. Being a woman in the diamond industry has shaped my journey in ways both subtle and profound. My aim has never been to change the industry by force, but by example – by showing what is possible when knowledge, integrity and empathy lead.
Diamonds tell stories of time and endurance, of beauty, craftsmanship and love. My own story, like the industry itself, is still evolving, and it’s one I am proud to tell.