Meet Our Team

I immigrated to the United States in 1967. My family has always believed in the value of education, and I was able to obtain a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and an MBA at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1974 I took an engineering job at NCR in Dayton, Ohio, but on Saturdays I worked as a wholesaler of diamonds and gemstones. In 1981,with seven years of Saturday success, I chose to dedicate myself full time to serving Independent Jewelers, and started a full time company that today is Gems One Trading. Over the years, we’ve had many opportunities to reach outside the realm of Independents, but I have always chosen to walk away from those, as my heart is really with the Independent business owners who helped me make Gems One a successful company. Our focus was, is, and will always remain on helping our Independent Jewelry store customers achieve success.

I was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, the eldest child of immigrant parents who were committed to life as a Midwestern American family. After High School I attended Columbia University in City of New York, and upon graduation in 1993 developed a strategy with my Dad in which we believed that the future growth of the family’s business required relocation of its headquarters to New York City. During the subsequent decade, I navigated the company’s evolution from loose gemstone wholesaler to finished jewelry supplier, which also allowed us to establish the foundation for the company’s expansion from regional to national supplier. Most importantly, I have always kept the company’s focus on partnering with and helping the Independent jeweler. It’s a vertical we understand, and we have consistently been able to experience success as a company by aligning our own family business with the interests of our customers’ family businesses.

My jewelry career began when I went to work for my family’s jewelry store, Hart Jewelers in St. Louis, MO (originally started in 1947). Unfortunately, as a result of bad advice that led to poor strategic decisions, the company was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1989, and my father lost everything. This very personal experience is the primary source for my passion in my job: helping independent jewelers achieve solid, sustainable growth. After experiences as a sales representative at leading jewelry manufacturers like Town and Country and GDM, I have now spent over a decade utilizing Gems One’s customer-centric approach to properly equip stores with the tools to grow and prosper in a challenging, ever-changing environment.

My first job in the jewelry industry was at the age of 5-years-old. I would sit on the floor of my Father’s office polishing his sample line when he would return from a week or two on the road as a sales rep. And when I went to college to study journalism and advertising, I never thought in a million years I would end up back in the jewelry industry. But after working for several radio stations and a mall jeweler, I landed a job with the Seiko watch company and later with the Bulova watch company. And regardless of the company I was working for, I discovered that Independent jewelers don't really need another traveling sales rep to sell them stuff. And they certainly don’t need yet another vendor, because they have too many of those already. They need a partner! Someone who has the tools and programs to help them grow their business. That is why I am proud to be associated with Gems One, a company that offers great products at great prices as well as real solutions to real problems. Because for the first time, I don’t have to worry about selling stuff to our customers. Instead, I can focus on how to help our customers make more sales.

My jewelry career started in Dewitt, IA in 1992 as I traveled the Midwest with Town and Country Jewelry Manufacturing. I then joined M Fabrikant and Sons in 1996, and remained until they ceased business at the end of 2008, shortly thereafter joining Gems One. Each of these companies has given methe tools to be a genuinely helpful partner to all of my customers, people who I also now consider to be great friends. And more than any other company I know of, Gems One’s primary focus is on helping our customers succeed. It’s a winning strategy, and it’s helped me continue to retain my business relationships with people who I really want to help, and really care about. .

I grew up working in my father’s jewelry store, a progressive and successful business in a small town in North Louisiana. After graduating from Louisiana Tech in marketing, I worked as a salesman for Five Star Distributors (Speidel) for five years. In 1982, I joined Stuckey Diamonds working Southwest Texas then Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas as a salesman for 13 years, then continued for 16 years as Vice President of Sales. When Stuckey closed I worked for Tache for about a year, but then was fortunate to be able to join Gems One in 2012. Just as The Stuckey Company put its efforts into helping the Independent Jeweler grow their business, Gems One has taken it to a new level and is always striving to do more and more to help the Independent Jeweler. Being at Gems One has been a perfect fit to help me help my friends.

At the ripe young age of 23 I received a baptism by fire in the jewelry business, transitioning from internal employee to the dual role of owner and the company’s only salesman when my father passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. I made lots of mistakes early on, but fortunately, none of them proved fatal, and for the following twenty years the company progressed until I ultimately sold it to Novell. Freed from the headaches of ownership of a manufacturing business, I was able to pursue a career in full-time sales, meeting the needs of the same customer base with a variety of products and services that were a good fit in New Jersey and the area immediately adjacent to New York City. When one of my best customers recommended me for a position with Gems One seven years ago, I discovered new ways of thinking about how to address the fundamental challenges that my customers face. I now work with well over 100 Independent Jewelry store owners who look to Gems One for their main marketing and merchandising solutions. I know of no other company in the Jewelry business that’s like us, and I am very glad to be part of the Gems One team.

 

I originally went to college for computer programming, and while I found writing code to be both interesting and challenging, I realized pretty early that a lifelong career sitting at a desk staring into a monitor was just not for me. Fortunately, I found my calling when I had an unexpected (perhaps heaven sent?) opportunity almost twenty years ago to attend trade shows working for Kabana. My performance at the Shows led the company to give me a line and a territory, and my career as a jewelry road salesman began. During my time on the road, I’ve been exposed to a variety of ways of doing business, but I have never seen anything like Gems One, and I was thrilled to get the opportunity to go to work for them in January of 2020. At last, I’ve got a real opportunity to have a big impact on my customers’ businesses, and I’m really looking forward to serving them with the powerful tools that Gems One offers.

The jewelry bug first bit me in a small town in Southern Idahowhen my father recruited me to work at the jewelry counter in our sporting goods store. (I told you it was a small town.) When the time was right my family sold everything and moved to sunny Scottsdale, Arizona. As if by fate my new best friends in high school worked for their family’s colored stone business so naturally after graduation I started with them full time. After a decade in that role I knew it was time to explore other aspects of the industry. In doing so I had the good fortune over the next twenty years of being able to work for some of the largest diamond and jewelry manufacturers in the world. Throughout the decades I had the pleasure of getting to know the impressive Gems One team so when they asked me to come aboard in 2019 and take over a multi-million dollar West coast territory I didn’t hesitate for one minute. Gems One is an extremely progressive company with dynamic cutting edge solutions for the Independent Jeweler and I am proud to be part of their team.

As a child, I discovered a passion for art, and knew from a very early age that I wanted to be an artist, and more specifically an art director. I was blessed with key mentors during high school, and then attended Parson’s School of Design in New York City to obtain a formal education in Communication Design, which allowed me to establish a career first in publishing, and then in the graphic’s side of marketing and advertising. Now as Creative Director at RLA Creative, I have been responsible for Gems One’s seasonal marketing materials for over a decade. And as Omnichannel marketing has become more important for Gems One’s customers, I’ve also become immersed in the world of digital and social media. In working directly with Gems One’s clients, I have especially enjoyed the task of developing strategic and emotionally-resonant creative materials designed to help them achieve their individual goals. And each day, I have a simple mission: Create awesome stuff. And then keep making it better, year after year. That’s the task that truly tests my creativity. And that’s also why I love this job.