Michael

My passion is all things diamonds – especially coloured ones! – and looking after wonderful customers from here and all over the world.

Having been born to parents who had established a thriving and evolving jewellery business, eventually joining the family enterprise was always a possibility – even if it took me a while to get here!

My parents were manufacturing jewellery wholesalers and from a young age, school holidays were spent running job packets between, jewellers, setters and polishers to create the ranges of jewellery which were sold by “Neuman Jewellery Imports” to many of the familiar and respected jewellery retailers in Sydney and around the country. Back then, as now, the jewellery created by my family was renowned for being of high quality and unique/innovative design and I believe those were key ingredients to my parents’ success.

Straight out of high school I studied gemmology and jewellery design (spelled the American way) at the G.I.A in Santa Monica, California. These studies really nourished my interest in diamonds and gemstones. I had particularly noted that coloured diamonds were found in Kalimantan and as I had studied Indonesian at high school, I came back all fired up to use my language skills as an advantage to sourcing these rarities.

My parents had other ideas however and encouraged me to “do something for yourself, the business will always be here if you are still interested”. And so it was that I went to university, got a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Anthropology but ended up spending around 15 years in hospitality, running restaurants and cafés.

I believe this experience honed my customer service orientation and helped me become a better business owner/salesperson. When I joined Neuman Imports, it was in wholesale and my interest in and knowledge of coloured diamonds was focussed and expanded, because our company had been chosen by Argyle to distribute their goods.

I travelled around the country selling loose diamonds as well as a small range of pink diamond jewellery. Over the past 20 years or so I would like to think that I have become an expert and authority on these diamonds, and I give courses once a year to other jewellery valuers on how to value these rare and wonderful gifts of nature. In the past,

I have served on industry boards, and I have been privileged to have been elected by my peers to the position of Chairman of the Diamond Guild of Australia.

It is still my greatest pleasure however, to share my expertise with customers in the shop and have them trust me (and my colleagues) enough to let us help them make the purchases which are so special and meaningful to them, no matter how
large or small.

Everyone who comes to Mondial is a welcome guest who we wish to make happy and whose expectations we aim to exceed with our level of care and service.