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Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index

⬅ # 383 Thomas Hagen|# 385 Blair Parry-Okeden ➡

# 384 Laurence Graff 

$7.49B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 5/18/2024
$3.8M (0.05%)

# 384 Laurence Graff 

$7.49B

Real Time Net Worth
as of 5/18/2024
$3.8M (0.05%)
OccupationChair, Graff Diamonds International
Source of WealthDiamond Jewelry
Age85
ResidenceGstaad, Switzerland
Marital StatusDivorced
Children5
Age-Adjusted Net Worth$1.38B
Laurence Graff
Laurence Graff
United Kingdom
Net worth: $7.49B

Self-Made Score 

Wealth History

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Biography

Early Life

Laurence Graff was born on June 13, 1938, in Stepney, into a Jewish family.
His parents were Rebecca Segal, a Romanian, and Harry Graff, a Russian.
At the age of 14, Graff left school to become an apprentice in a jewellery manufacturing workshop in London, as encouraged by his mother.
He began his career in partnership with a jeweller named Schindler, repairing rings and crafting small pieces of jewellery.
After the closure of their shop, Graff started selling his jewellery designs independently to jewellers across England.
By 1962, he owned two jewellery shops, including his first in Hatton Garden.

Career

In 1960, Laurence Graff founded the Graff Diamonds company, which has since become a leading supplier of jewellery and jewels.
He gained significant recognition when he commissioned the English jewellery designer Robert Thomas to create a diamond jewel for the De Beers Diamond International Awards competition in 1966.
By 1974, Graff had begun specializing in catering to wealthy buyers from the Middle East.
Graff's clientele included prominent figures such as the Sultan of Brunei and Prince Turki II bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
Over the years, Graff expanded his company to include over 35 shops across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the US.
In 2013, Graff was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his contributions to the jewellery industry.

Wealth and Business Holdings

Graff owns a polished diamond trading firm in Switzerland and real estate in London's Mayfair district.
He holds a 60% stake in Graff Diamonds Corp., a holding company based in the Cayman Islands.
Graff also has a stake in a South African diamond wholesaler.
Additionally, he owns Delaire Graff Estate, a vineyard, winery, boutique hotel, and restaurant located in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Wittelsbach Diamond Recut

In 2008, Laurence Graff purchased the Wittelsbach Diamond for £16.4 million, significantly above the guide price.
Nearly two years later, he had three diamond cutters re-polish the stone to enhance its clarity, reducing its size from 35.52 carats to 31 carats.
Despite criticism, the recut improved the diamond's clarity and color grade, elevating it from Fancy Deep Grayish Blue to Fancy Deep Blue and from VS2 to Internally Flawless (IF).
The recut retained the original double stellate brilliant facet pattern.
The Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond, as it was renamed, underwent a substantial upgrade through the recutting process.

Personal Life

Laurence Graff married Anne-Marie in 1962, with whom he had three children: François Xavier, Kristelle, and Stephane.
He later divorced Anne-Marie, who is now credited as Anne-Marie Graff Ali.
Graff's son, François Xavier, serves as the chief executive of the family business.
Reports surfaced of Graff having an affair with jeweller Josephine Daniel, with whom he fathered a daughter in July 2009 and later another child.
Graff has a total of five children and resides in Gstaad, Switzerland.
An art collector, Graff has shown interest in impressionist paintings as well as contemporary art, owning pieces like Andy Warhol’s 'Liz', purchased for $12.6 million.

How long would it take you to become as rich as Laurence Graff?

If you started with $10,000 and invested an additional $500 each month at a 44.10% CAGR, it would take you 5 years to reach Laurence Graff's net worth of $7.49B.

Is this realistic? It depends how closely the VIX-TA-Macro Advanced model performs to its history in the future. Since Grizzly Bulls launched on January 1, 2022, it's returned 42.76% compared to 11.89% for the S&P 500 benchmark.

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Laurence Graff is very wealthy, but what's stopping you from reaching that same level of success? As summarized in our five fundamental rules to wealth building, becoming wealthy in a modern capitalist economy is not complicated. There's actually only three variables:

  1. Your starting capital
  2. Your earnings after expenses
  3. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of your savings

Most people start with zero or very little, so if you weren't born into wealth, don't fret! The majority of the fortunate folks listed in our Grizzly Bulls’ Billionaires Index came from middle class or lower backgrounds. The most distinguishing characteristic of the group is their ability to consistently earn a high CAGR on their savings.

Every billionaire has a unique strategy to achieve high CAGR. For Laurence Graff, Diamond Jewelry is the primary source. Whether you choose to invest your savings in your own businesses or the businesses of others is not as important. The salient piece of the puzzle is ensuring that your hard-earned savings are generating sufficient CAGR to reach your long term goals.

Most people simply invest their money in index funds and call it a day. There's nothing wrong with this approach, but it guarantees relative mediocrity. To achieve greatness, you need to invest your money to earn higher than average returns. In the long run, better investors will always finish ahead of better earners.

Source: Grizzly Bulls reporting

Methodology: Grizzly Bulls' Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world's billionaires and richest people. Grizzly Bulls strives to provide the most accurate net worth calculations available. We pull data from public equity markets, SEC filings, public real estate records, and other reputable sources.

The index is dynamic and updates daily at the close of U.S. stock market trading based on changes in the markets, economy, and updates to Grizzly Bulls' proprietary algorithm of personal wealth calculation. Stakes in public companies are tracked daily based on the relevant closing prices of the underlying securities. Additionally, stakes in private companies, cash, real estate, and other less easily valued assets are updated periodically through careful analysis of insider transactions, comparable public company sales / EBITDA multiples, etc.

Edited by: Lee Bailey