Ernest Oppenheimer

Diamonds, South Africa. Oppenheimer, a German-born diamond buyer in Kimberley, founded Anglo American in 1917 and took control of De Beers in 1929, then built the Central Selling Organisation in London, which sorted the world's rough diamonds and sold them to selected dealers at prices it set. Controlling supply kept diamond prices high for most of the century. The system rested on low-paid Black miners under South Africa's segregation laws.