PodcastsJan 21, 2026
Episode 1: High Gold Prices, the Diamond Dilemma, & What’s NextWas 2025 a good year for jewelers? Did lab-grown diamonds outsell natural? Find out on the first episode of the “My Next Question” podcast.
SourcingMar 04, 2016
DEF to Honor Former Sterling CEO Nate Light
Light will be the first recipient of Diamond Empowerment Fund’s new Diamonds Do Good Lifetime Achievement Award, which he’ll receive during the organization’s gala in Las Vegas.
Nate Light, former CEO of Sterling Jewelers
New York--Nate Light will be the recipient of the Diamond Empowerment Fund’s first Diamonds Do Good Lifetime Achievement Award, which will be presented at the organization’s annual event in Las Vegas.
DEF said it plans for the Lifetime Achievement Award to be an annual recognition for an individual who has promoted the importance of developing social purpose programs and charitable giving to help communities where the diamond industry does business.
Light, the former CEO of Sterling Jewelers Inc., “epitomizes this ideal,” DEF said.
Joining Sterling in 1977, Light helped to grow the company from a chain of 32 stores to a giant, national retailer with more than 1,000 doors, 14,000 employees and annual revenues of nearly $1 billion.
Beginning in the 1980s, he was active with the Foundation Fighting Blindness and helped to organize the industry’s “Party with a Purpose” at JCK Las Vegas in 1994, the roots of today’s Facets for Hope gala hosted by Jewelers for Children.
Now led by CEO Mark Light, Sterling, a unit of Signet Jewelers Ltd., continues its philanthropy by supporting JFC, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Akron Children’s Hospital, the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and DEF.
“Light helped galvanize giving around industry charities, and because of his early efforts, today more than $48 million has been raised by the industry for JFC to benefit children in need around the world,” DEF said.
Light will be recognized at DEF’s Diamonds Do Good gala in the Four Seasons ballroom in Las Vegas on June 2. For additional information or to purchase tickets, visit the Diamonds Do Good Awards website.
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