From Macquarie to Running Australia's Oldest Jeweller

Irene Deutsch started out sorting share applications on the floor at midnight during one of Australia's biggest bank floats. Decades later, she's the CEO of the country's oldest jeweller. This episode traces one of the more unexpected career journeys in Australian finance.In this episode of Ticket Talk, we sit down with Irene Deutsch, CEO, Managing Director and proprietor of Fairfax & Roberts, Australia's oldest jeweller. Before jewellery, Irene spent decades in banking and broking, starting at Macquarie Bank in a tiny sales team, moving to Goldman Sachs and later working at ANZ, before an unexpected turn led her to run one of Sydney's most storied heritage brands

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

01:15 Growing up in Sydney as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor

02:14 University, Japanese studies and her first jobs

06:28 Starting out in a tiny Macquarie Bank sales team

11:43 The move to Goldman Sachs

14:19 Leaving banking to run Fairfax & Roberts

16:30 Inside Australia's oldest jeweller

18:19 Buying diamonds, gemstones and the lab-grown disruption

21:19 Why jewellery beats banking for her now

26:08 Rapid fire round

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