Legendary Diamantaire Willie Nagel dies, aged 96
July 19, 21
(IDEX Online) - Tributes have been paid to the legendary Willie Nagel, diamond entrepreneur, former De Beers broker and pioneer of the Kimberley Process, who died last week aged 96.
He quit a career as a Cambridge University-qualified lawyer, established the W. Nagel Ltd diamond company in London, and was appointed as a De Beers broker in 1959.
He became a luminary in the diamond world and beyond. To his diamond buying clients he was, he said: "political lobbyist, advisor, confidante, and sometimes even psychologist".
In the wider world his blend of diplomacy and chutzpah - and his contribution to international and business affairs - earned him meetings with every British prime minister and U.S. president since the 1960s.
He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Federation of Diamond Bourses for his pivotal role in establishing the Kimberley Process in 2003, which was credited with "saving the diamond industry".
Mr Nagel (pictured) was born in Romania in 1925, fled to Palestine, as was, with his family as the Nazis marched through Europe and arrived in Britain in 1946.
"My late father, Abraham David, was a real entrepreneur, a man with prescience to foresee the future development of the polished diamond industry in the then Palestine," he told IDEX in 2008.
"He established the second polishing factory there in 1942. So while studying for my degree I also started to work as a broker on the London diamond market."
De Beers said: "We were saddened to learn of the passing of Willie Nagel and our thoughts go out to the Nagel family.
"Willie played a central role in the evolution of the diamond industry over a very long and distinguished career. Although the industry will miss him, his legacy will live on just like the diamonds he was synonymous with."