Laurence Graff OBE (born 13 June 1938) is an English jeweller. He is best known as the founder of Graff Diamonds, supplier of jewellery and jewels.
Early life
Graff was born in Stepney in 1938 into a Jewish family, the son of a Romanian mother, Rebecca Segal, and a Russian father, Harry Graff. His father made suits off the Commercial Road while his mother ran a tobacconist and newsagents. His brother Raymond was born in 1947.
Career
Graff left school and became an apprentice when he was 15. He soon went into partnership with Schindler, a jeweller, repairing rings and creating small pieces of jewellery in a small shop. That shop went out of business and so Graff began selling his jewellery designs independently to jewellers all over England. By 1962, he had two jewellery shops, including his first in Hatton Garden – the centre of London’s jewellery trade since medieval times.
In 1960, he founded the Graff Diamonds company. In 1966 he commissioned the English jewellery-designer Robert Thomas to design a diamond jewel to enter into the De Beers Diamond International Awards competition. The ribbon bracelet created won the competition. By 1974, he had begun specialising in selling to newly rich buyers from the Middle East. In particular, he supplied many jewels for Hassanal Bolkiah, the 29th Sultan of Brunei, who became a lifelong client and friend. One day, Prince Turki bin Abdul Aziz walked into the shop and bought everything including a 14 carat diamond. Graff has expanded his company, with over 35 stores in US, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Graff was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to the jewellery industry.
British businessman Laurence Graff has an estimated net worth of $4.6 billion as of April 2016, according to Forbes.
Laurence Graff was born on June 13, 1938 in Stepney, London, UK. He is currently married to Anne-Marie Graff with whom he has three children named Francois, Kristelle and Stephane. In 2009, he acknowledge that he fathered the child of the jeweler Josephine Daniel who was reported to be 34 years his junior. After leaving school, he went to work as a cleaner of toilets and floors at age 15. Eventually, he partnered with Schindle in repairing rings as well as in creating minute jewelries in a small jewelry shop. In 1960, he founded Graff Diamonds company. Two years later, Laurence Graff already had two jewelry shops in England.
Today, his company specializes on retailing high end jewelries, especially diamonds. He now runs more than 20 stores worldwide including the recently launched shops in Hanghzhou, Dubai, Gstaad, Macau and Hong Kong. Among his current assets include shares in a South African diamond wholesaler, a real estate in London, an Antwerp-based polished diamond trading venture, Delaire Graff Estate, Stellenbosch-based winery and vineyard that is equipped with restaurant, boutique and hotel, as well as an extensive contemporary and modern art collection.
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