Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS - News) may not have a lot of friends in the White House these days, but one of its former employees has made a good impression. After three years as an analyst in Goldman's fixed-income, currencies, and commodities division, Monique Pean began her own jewelry line that can now be found in Barneys, Jeffrey New York, and around the neck of Michelle Obama.
In the summer of 2003 the University of Pennsylvania grad took a job at Goldman, arriving for work each day by 5:30 a.m. Two years later her sister died in a car accident, and Pean began making jewelry as a form of therapy. The hobby persisted, and Pean, now 29, spent $30,000 of her savings to buy a piece of fossilized woolly mammoth tusk from the Arctic Circle as material. When she wore a necklace made from part of the tusk into boutique Scoop NYC, the store manager took notice. Pean said she'd made it herself, and the manager asked to see a line sheet. "I had no idea what a line sheet was," says Pean.
Scoop's interest inspired her to approach more stores, and within six months, she left Goldman to pursue her own jewelry company, Monique Pean Fine Jewelry, sourced from artisans from around the world. Los Angeles' Milk boutique became the first retailer to carry her line. For two years she ran the company by herself, eventually hiring the consultancy firm Launch Collective to help her with marketing, sales schedules, and philanthropy (she donates $20 to $30 from each piece to the organization Charity: Water). In late 2009, Pean eased the load by taking on an angel investor, which enabled her nine-person New York-based company to expand its production to 1,000 pieces a year that range from $320 to $203,840 for a recycled rose gold, 33.4 carat diamond bracelet.
Thanks to two industry awards -- and buzz following Obama's decision to wear a Pean necklace to a state dinner -- the business has grown 136% in the past year. Barney's carries her line in eight of its national stores. "At Goldman I followed currencies and commodities," says Pean. "Now, I find myself doing the same thing. I'm constantly tracking the price of gold."
From Finance To Fossils
Price of most expensive material in Pean's current line [antique diamonds]: $80,000
Pieces of 12,000-year-old fossilized woolly mammoth tusk in showroom: 5
Number of Herkimer diamonds at Pean's headquarters in New York: 2,241
The company helped provide clean water to this many people last year: 4,000+
Data: Monique Pean Fine Jewelry