Flying Trapeze
Former IDF intelligence officer Steven Baker has used his
guile and skill to make it big in Israel's cloak-and-dagger
diamond industry.
SUE FISHKOFF SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
I
t. Col. (res) Steven Baker,
39, a former IDF intelli-
gence officer, came from
nowhere six years ago to
take on the closed world of Israel's
diamond industry, creating the
first new diamond cut to hit the
international market in more
than 15 years.
Mr. Baker's creation, the
"trapeze" diamond, is a brilliant
baguette (or taper) shaped stone
cut with up to 48 facets, instead
of the usual 10 to 12 facets.
The extra facets enhance the
stone's reflective power, giving it
extraordinary brilliance and play
of colors.
In the highly secretive world
of diamond dealing, techniques
are jealously guarded. Mr. Bak-
er has surrounded himself with
an army of lawyers — four in Is-
rael and five in the United States,
where his main office is located
on New York's Fifth Avenue.
And he's copyrighted the
trapeze diamond every step of the
way, from cutting technique to
logo. His patents are registered
in Israel, the United States, Eu-
rope, India and the Far East.
Mr. Baker claims he is the first
Israeli to receive a U.S. patent on
a diamond.
Mr. Baker entered the dia-
mond world in 1988, when his
former business floundered in a
collapsing economy. He started
at the bottom, sweeping floors
and learning to polish the rough
stones at a Tel Aviv diamond fac-
tory.
He quickly moved on to the Di-
amond Exchange (Boursa),
where he learned the trade:
choosing shapes, cutting facets,
and "clocking' the finished stones
for size.
Mr. Baker says he was one of
the few "outsiders" at the Ex-
change, where booths go from fa-
ther to son, and family ties mean
everything.
"It's a very closed world," he
says. "Everyone is suspicious of
each other, they communicate us-
ing special codes, they try to fig-
ure out who's buying and who's
selling — it's like the CIA.
"If you cheat someone, by noon
everyone knows it and no one will
deal with you. I learned to shut
my mouth. My background in in-
telligence helped me a lot."
Striking out on his own in ear-
ly 1989, Mr. Baker landed in New
York with a small parcel of loose
diamonds — "maybe $15,000
worth" — and sold them door to
door on Manhattan's famed 47th
Street.
Three months later, he had a
steady clientele of 10 to 15 cus-
tomers and a small Manhattan
office.
Over the next half year, Mr.
Baker moved on to Los Angeles
and then Chicago, where he es-
tablished branch offices by the
same method.
All the while, however, he had
a far larger ambition: to create
a new kind of diamond that
would take the retail market by
storm.
Mr. Baker is a new breed of di-
amond dabbler: aggressive, out-
spoken and publicity-oriented.
He changed his name a few years
ago from Shlomo Bachar, which
he says branded him as "an im-
migrant" and was hard for Amer-
icans to pronounce.
He took his new name from
Steven Baker, a football star
known as "the touchdown-mak-
er." The sports connection of his
new name is, he says, a good ice-
breaker with American clients.
With a master's degree in in-
ternational marketing from Tel
Aviv University, Mr. Baker's
main interest lies at the retail end
of the business.
"I don't particularly like dia-
monds myself," he admits. "To
me, it's a business."
Mr. Baker says his strength is
in marketing. That has deter-
mined his business style.
"I work from the customer end
backwards, visiting jewelry stores
in every city to see what is sell-
ing, what the clients want," he
says.
"All the dealers in Israel, no
matter how big they are, are lim-
ited by the old, traditionalist ways
of thinking. They don't innovate.
And if they create something
new, they don't know how to mar-
ket it."
By mid-1989, Mr. Baker was
back in Israel, where he pur-
chased $4,000
worth of rough
stones and began
to experiment
with new cutting
techniques.
He focused on
the baguette and
taper shapes,
which are most
often used to sur-
round a central
solitaire stone on
engagement
rings.
The ordinary
method of polish-
ing the shapes to
10 or 12 facets,
he says, "creates
a cold, icy dia-
mond with little
life."
He decided to
try for 48 facets in each stone, "to
create brilliancy in the cut and
give more life to the stone."
The first attempts failed mis-
erably, resulting in over-heavy
stones with little brilliance. It
took several months, and a trip
to cutting experts in Belgium, be-
fore he was satisfied with his
product.
But in order to break into the
international market, he needed
TRAPEZE page 45
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Air Canada Will Fly To Israel, Eh?
Air Canada will begin flying to
Israel this summer. Tel Aviv
will be the company's first Mid-
dle Eastern destination and its
only new trans-Atlantic route
this year.
The service will begin with a
nonstop flight between Toron-
to and Tel Aviv on Thursday,
June 22. The flights, on a Boe-
ing 767-300ER, will leave Is-
rael on Tuesdays and
Thursdays and return Sundays
and Tuesdays.
Hotels Are This Chain's Forte
The Forte hotel chain, fourth
largest in the world, is inter-
ested in acquiring a hotel in Is-
rael, according to Russell
Sharpe, regional director for
sales and marketing in the
Middle East, India, Israel and
South Africa.
Mr. Sharpe, who is based in
Dubai, said Forte is willing to
build, buy an existing proper-
ty, or get involved in a joint ven-
ture or management contract.
Coming Soon: The Gaza Marriott
Plans for the largest hotel in
the territories are a step closer
to reality following a deal be-
tween a Palestinian-American
developer and a U.S. lending
agency.
The 275-room Gaza Marriott
Business Center should open
within two years after con-
struction begins, according to
the project's developer, Ziad
Karram, chief executive officer
of the Virginia-based General
Resources Design Group.
Motorola Offering Israeli Software
Motorola will begin including
software made by the Israeli
firm VocalTec in some of its
modems. The technology de-
livers real-time voice commu-
nication over the Internet.
VocalTec has been selling its
software package via the In-
ternet, downloading a free
demonstration model to users.
Coupons in Motorola modem
boxes will let buyers download
the software free of charge.
Toys `115 Us Coming To Israel
Representatives of retail giant the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds. Toys
Toys `1/' Us attended this 'R' Us intends to open its first
week's Isra-Toy exhibition at Israeli branch this summer.
Inflation Slows To Western Levels
February's consumer price in-
dex in Israel rose just 0.2 per-
cent as falling produce and
clothing prices brought infla-
tion down to Western levels. It
was the second month in a row
the index rose 0.2 percent.
"As long as fruit and veg-
etable and clothing prices to-
gether contribute minus 0.5
percent to the index, we can say
we have reached European in-
flation levels," said Capital
Holdings' chief economist
Jonathan Katz.
Bank Of Israel Drops Interest Rates
Fearing high interest rates
would bring on a recession, the
Israeli government blinked first
and approved the additional
budget and tax cuts the Bank
of Israel had demanded in re-
turn for immediately shaving
interest rates by 1.5 percent.
The Tel Aviv Stock Ex-
change rose by more than 6
percent on hearing the news of
the measures.
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