Forbes_USA_June_13_2017

CAROLYN RAFAELIAN
tiative to use Alex and Ani jewelry as a
fundraising tool makes up about 20%
of total sales, adding another layer of
karma—and profits.
That’s how Rafaelian surged from
a one-woman band run out of her father’s
Rhode Island factory basement
into America’s only jewelry billionaire—and
the No. 18 spot on the
Forbes list of America’s Richest Self-
Made Women (see p. 86)—owning
80% of a company worth at least $1.2
billion. She’s enjoying the trappings—
fixing up a 56,000-square-foot mansion
in Newport that she will open as
a museum (see p. 16) and testing out
new grape varietals at her Sakonnet
Vineyards in nearby Little Compton.
An IPO awaits. “If I wanted to do that,
we’re primed, we’re ready,” she says.
“We can pull the switch at any time.”
It’s rare that the public markets ever
encounter a CEO like this 50-yearold
free spirit, who has been known
to consult planetary charts during decision
making. Rafaelian says she was
the sort of kid who had an imaginary
friend. And while she was raised in the
Rafaelian believes her jewelry
is imbued with positive
energy—a priest and shaman
bless each piece.
Christian Armenian Apostolic faith,
Rafaelian borrows bits and pieces from
other religions and traditions. She
keeps dried bundles of sage in her office
drawer to burn when she needs to
smoke out negative energy and a healing
quartz crystal on a file cabinet behind
her desk.
Not quite everyone’s cup of herbal
tea. But Rafaelian’s products let a generation
that craves authenticity wear
their affinities on their sleeve. “There’s
no ambiguity that jewelry like Alex
and Ani has become something the
consumer covets now,” says Christopher
Burch, who backed his former
wife Tory (see p. 89) as well as Alex
and Ani competitor BaubleBar. “It’s no
longer an afterthought. It’s part of her
wardrobe.”
Little-known fact: The world’s costume
jewelry capital was, for generations,
America’s smallest state. Just 30
years ago, roughly 80% of that product
was made in Rhode Island. Like
much of American manufacturing, it’s
mostly gone overseas, but Rafaelian
traces her roots to this business and
this state.
Her father married into the industry,
working for his brother-in-law
manufacturing brooches and earrings
for big names of the age like Trifari
and Monet. In 1966, the year Rafaelian
was born, he founded his own
company, Cinerama Jewelry, based in
Cranston, just outside of Providence.
He made costume jewelry of all kinds,
Jini Kim
$170 MILLION
AGE: 36 RESIDENCE: SAN FRANCISCO
Daughter of South Korean
immigrants helped her parents
care for her brother, who was
diagnosed with severe autism
and, later, epilepsy. Because her
parents couldn’t understand
English very well yet, Kim
was tasked with the complex
job of registering her brother
for Medicaid when she was
just 9 years old. She helped start Google Public Data
and worked on the HealthCare.gov launch. In 2010
she founded Nuna to use data to help make health
care more efficient. According to venture-capital
fundraising database Pitchbook, Nuna raised $60
million in June 2016, valuing the business at some
$600 million.
Jamie O’Banion
$50 MILLION
AGE: 35 RESIDENCE: DALLAS
Former model teamed up
with her dermatologist
father in 2011 to form Beauty
Bioscience, which began
by making antiwrinkle
creams. After a minority
equity investment from
direct-marketing firm Guthy-
Renker in 2015, CEO O’Banion
launched GloPro in 2016, a
$200 at-home “microneedling” device. The tool, which
splits skin cells to stimulate collagen production, sold
out in its first day on home shopping channel HSN. That
helped lift 2016 sales to $30 million. GloPro, which is
sold in high-end retailers Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf
Goodman, is slated to launch in Harrods and Sephora
later this year.
JUNE 13, 2017 FORBES | 73