Hello Truth About Diamonds readers!  My name is Michael Fried.  I was born and raised in New York City.  While I am a New Yorker at heart, I am also a wanderlust traveler.  I have lived in Israel, New Zealand and Australia and I currently live in Brno, Czech Republic (a nice university town right in the center of Europe).  Over the last 6 years I have visited over 30 countries.  I am most comfortable when I am in a foreign land, not knowing how to find the right train and arguing with some border police who I need to communicate with using hand signals.

While studying International Business and Accounting in New York, I started to work part time at Leo Schachter (one of the leading diamond polishers in the world). I started out part time doing administrative work, but I quickly became more involved in the diamond side of the business.  After two years there, the company sent me to their global headquarters for an intense diamond training regimen.  As Ira explained, we weren’t just learning the academic knowledge of gemology.  We learned how to evaluate every facet (pun intended) of the diamond trade in order to maximize the value of every diamond that came through our company.

While we learned all aspects of the business, I specialized in 1ct+ certified diamonds – specifically fancy shapes (non-round).  I returned to New York and ran the fancy shape division.  My main focus was developing relationships with traditional brick and mortar independent retailers.  I traveled around the US extensively learning the ins and outs of the jewelry retail trade.  After leaving Leo Schachter in 2007, I worked at another major diamond polisher called Moshe Namdar.  I became increasingly disenchanted with the business, and finally walked away at the end of 2009.  I have been travelling ever since, occasionally having worked at an independent retailer.

When Ira first started Truth About Diamonds, I was very impressed with the idea.  I loved the concept of utilizing our expertise to empower the consumer.  I was excited when Ira brought me on board early on to handle the day-to-day management of the website, including my favorite part - interacting with our fantastic readership!