Having started his career in the diamond trade at De Beers in London, Mahiar Borhanjoo returned to the diamond giant last year as Chief Commercial Officer after working for a decade for other diamond companies.
Mahiar explains why he returned to De Beers and what his new position involves, as well as what he brings to his new role. In addition, he gives his views on the state of the diamond industry and why London still plays a central role in the diamond trade.
Could you tell our readers about how you came to be involved in the diamond trade? Where did you start and how did your path develop?
I started out in the diamond trade quite by chance. I grew up in Salt Lake City and that's a place where there are a lot of early age engagements, so at 18 I started helping friends with engagement ring purchases.
That led me to want to learn more and design jewelry which in turn led to buying diamonds for friends. While doing that, a friend at a consulting firm saw an advertisement for an executive position for managing diamond sales and that is how I initially made my first steps in the trade. At the time, I was an executive at a publicly traded company in a very different type of business.
The fun part was starting in the diamond business because of the excitement and desire for the product and that made me want to learn more. I was blessed. How often do you get the opportunity to learn at a company like De Beers that invented the modern diamond business?
What is it about diamonds that led to your love of working with these precious stones?
I was always told when I was young to become a doctor and the thing that I always wanted to do was to make people better. I saw that diamonds gave people a wonderful way to celebrate an achievement.
It was all about joy and happiness, such as celebrating an engagement, birth, marriage or anniversary. That is an intoxicating environment to be in and to work with products that bring so much joy to people. That stimulated my desire to be in the industry.
Please tell us a little bit about your roles at De Beers – both previously and currently.
In 2007, I was appointed as executive director of rough sales and managed those sales reporting to Varda Shine who was CEO of the Diamond Trading Company at the time.
My current role as Chief Commercial Officer focuses on how do we vertically integrate and work with sightholders to create unique products. The Polished Division’s main focus is to allow us to work with sightholders and their partners to create unique products, and also work with sightholders to acquire diamonds for Forvermark and DB London [previously De Beers Jewellery].
Our Origin brand in the US tells the natural diamond story and creates a positive influence and is a physical / digital story. Consumers hear the story from videos from people in the countries where diamonds are mined and the tremendous impact they have on the local communities and countries as a whole.
Our diamonds are fully traceable from mine to polished stone, and we have taken all the developments of the last decade in order to tell the story.
Does your heart lie with rough stones or polished diamonds?
That’s a tough question to answer. I love rough goods because they give you the optimistic aspect of what something can become. On the other hand, polished diamonds are the wonderful outcome of the rough stone and is so fulfilling to see.
We used to talk about making a dream a reality. In that sense, rough stones are the dream about what they could become, while the polished gems are the beautiful reality. These are the two aspects and in the final product you see the pleasure a consumer derives.
You left De Beers to take up other challenges in recent years. What did you learn about the trade in those positions and what led you to return to De Beers?
I learned about manufacturing and other mining firms apart from De Beers with which I was obviously very familiar as Managing Director at Venus Jewel International and about how the entire industry works. It was about how you deal with the whole process of buying, selling and manufacturing. Meanwhile, at UNI Diamond, it was about real-time pricing information and how to deal with retailers and the retail story.
I came back to De Beers because I think this is the heart of the business. Making a true impact at a company which invented the A diamond is forever marketing slogan. This is the place where the diamond story starts.
I came back because I felt we were missing a beat in telling the natural diamond story. I felt we needed to be pushing that story. Look at what diamonds have done for Israel, India, the African diamond-producing countries and many others.
Natural diamonds help support so many communities. We need to further build on that narrative and get it out to consumers.
We have many people throughout De Beers that work well together in creating the right narrative and I am excited to be able to add my perspective to it.
You must have been involved with some fascinating events at De Beers. Could you tell our readers how De Beers’ role in the global industry has changed over the past couple of decades and where the company is now heading.
The one thing I can say is that under the current management team the focus is on getting the story out to consumers around the world. It’s much more prominent today than it was in the past.
De Beers has become much more flexible. The one constant over last two decades is that De Beers has never moved away from its leadership position. There is a big desire to promote that. We do well when we market well.
Due to De Beers’ HQ being situated in London, the British capital was at the heart of the global diamond trade for around a century. Clearly, it can’t recapture that former glory, but do you believe London still has a major role to play? What sort of role can/does it play?
The UK is clearly still very central to the rest of the world. You can easily travel anywhere in the world very efficiently from London. Of course, the heart of the diamond industry is in Botswana, but we do a lot via our partnerships with producer countries from here. In addition, from London we can understand the G7 requirements going forward.
How would you characterize current conditions in the diamond market globally?
We work a lot with retailers because there is confusion between natural diamonds and lab-grown stones. That creates challenges among consumers about what to buy.
What are the main issues you are hearing about from sightholders?
It has not been easy for sightholders or the mining firms in recent times. Every time we feel we are making progress, a new challenge comes along, such as tariffs and, before that the Russia-Ukraine war and sanctions.
I have never experienced the world in such a difficult place as in the last five years.
Helping sightholders and growing demand on the consumer side is where De Beers is making its mark.
We have new projects coming along such as Desert Diamonds in the US and the Origin brand, and we will be launching with more retail partners next year. We are receiving a positive response.
Is the diamond industry doing enough to market diamonds and see off the competition from LGDs?
I don’t know if we can say we are doing enough. We recognize that we always need to market well. The recognition and the efforts are there. We are marketing via Desert Diamonds and it is a big winner – and will get even better.
I am excited about our business. We should focus on our business as we have a wonderful product that we should always do more to promote.
Abraham Dayan for Rough&Polished
