Voted number 1 in the City & Guilds Vocational Rich List and constantly in the top five, the ‘king of diamonds”, entrepreneur Laurence Graff, has increased his wealth from £1.5 billion to £2 billion in just one year to top the 2008 List. His estimated wealth has risen almost thirteen times over since the list was first created in 2003.
Not bad for the Eastender who ditched school at 13 to take up an apprenticeship in diamonds in Hatton Garden. Laurence branched out into buying and selling stones and by the mid-sixties his workshop was a haunt for the mega-rich.
His business is the only one of its kind in the world: combining everything from buying diamonds from miners through to polishing, cutting and retailing them. At the end of 2007 Graff bought £20m worth of diamonds and modern art: proof indeed that the recent stock market turmoil and credit crunch have not hit his diamond business at all.
