December 2006

Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele… Getting Personal

Vice president of Chopard, prominent businesswoman, loving wife, and dedicated friend. With her inimitable style and grace, there is much more to this woman than meets the eye. Discover details about her daily life, hobbies, passions, likes and dislikes as well as her charitable work, as Today’s Outlook gets personal with the wealthy heiress herself, Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele.

Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele’s connection to the world of luxurious jewels and precious gems began when she was only 16 years old. Possessing a love of clowns and the circus, she designed, although unaware of it at the time, what was to become her first Chopard creation, a clown pendant. Her father, Karl Scheufele, President of Chopard, decided to manufacture a few of her pendants to please his daughter, and to his surprise, they were a great success.

Today, Mrs. Gruosi-Scheufele is very much involved in the design process. In fact, she is responsible for the design and creation of the company’s ‘Haute Joaillerie’ jewelry range and its line of perfumes and accessories. However, one collection stands very near and dear to her heart; “There is a collection I am very attached to, which is part of the Happy Diamonds concept….Happy Solitaire”.

Chopard is perhaps most noted for their Happy Diamonds series, which celebrates its 30-year anniversary this year. “It’s amazing everything that has been done around the moving diamonds; I think it is endless and unlimited”.

The concept of this new collection, Happy Solitaire, is a large diamond which moves into the centre, with a number of smaller diamonds traversing around it. “I think with this, a diamond really becomes Chopard, and that’s why I see a big future there”. A very big future indeed! The Chopard high jewelry collections are flourishing and continuing to experience phenomenal success worldwide.

This success is in spite of the fact that virtually no advertising was contracted and very little promotion undertaken. When asked about this Caroline paused before commenting “I think I add the creation to the stones. I mean, normally a large stone would be sold just as a stone, but I think we put that extra little bit and I have a lot of, um, how would you say… belief and optimism there”.

So how does this illustrious businesswoman and celebrated designer spend her days? “If I’m home in Geneva, first thing in the morning, I go downstairs to the kitchen and give my dogs some folate”.

Owning four dogs (she used to have seven!!) Caroline can be classified as a true dog lover. “…then I go out to the garden and have my espresso outside. I don’t eat breakfast. I just have a grapefruit juice and coffee and I have something to eat afterwards”. Twenty minutes later, she is showered, dressed and ready to head off to the office and start her day. “As soon as I get to the office I read all the mail, go through all the faxes and then I start working…. 1000 different things in a day!!”

When she’s not jet setting around the world, participating in charity events or creating exquisite much-coveted jewelry pieces, Caroline enjoys a number of hobbies, some of which, as I’m sure many of you reading this can relate to, are not shared by her, shall we say, less that athletic husband. “I used to do a lot of sports, but unfortunately I have a very un-sportive husband, he even says so…..so I like to go to the cinema. I’m a passionate cinema goer”.

Among her many other passions, Caroline is a self-proclaimed bookworm, enjoying prose in French, English, German and Italian. “I like books that capture you, you know, like a story you can’t put down because you have to finish it…..and of course it’s interesting to read; something about a personality, Caterina or Marie Antoinette, a personality in history, not history itself”.

For a woman admired by so many and constantly in the spotlight, Caroline is surprisingly down to earth, something she attributes to a number of factors including her education and the fact that her parents are humble people. Her greatest pet peeve: arrogance, “I hate arrogant people. I hate when people get full of themselves so I would not want anybody to think that I am”.

She is constantly striving to better herself, both personally and professionally. “I don’t think you have ever achieved everything. I think there is always room to do something more, to be better”. This constant strive to do better and be better is one of her secrets to success.

But how does one woman find the time and energy to achieve so much? “I think work keeps me going; I think it’s my passion. I think honestly, creating anything, something new, not necessarily within the product, but also creating the concept, the image - the marketing side”.

As if that isn’t enough to keep her on the go, Caroline is also something of a philanthropist. Chopard is regularly partnered with celebrity-studded events and charitable foundations around the world to raise funds for various causes.

Such causes include the Elton John Aids Foundation, Jose Carreras Foundation for the Fight against Leukemia, the Price Charles Foundation and the ALP Action – for the preservation of the Alps’ natural and cultural diversity and vitality.

Their efforts include everything from creating special watches and donating the proceeds to partnering with organizations and hosting events to raise funds. “Chopard as a company we do a lot” explains Caroline “but we also work without personalities. I mean, I do a lot that is not published - as a person I do a lot”. Caroline works with a foundation headed by her close friend to raise money for hospitals in Geneva, organizing the much-needed entertainment or ‘distractions’ for terminally ill children.

“It cheers them up. Every week on a Monday, there is a clown going through the children’s department… because when you are sick, believing that you will get better and having a good attitude is part of the healing process”. Being an animal lover, she is also involved in work for animals and is adamantly against animal testing, believing there is still much to be done to stop this cruel behavior.

Chopard’s involvement with the beautiful people of the world and well-known personalities, however, is not limited to their philanthropic efforts. Chopard has been an official partner of the Cannes Film Festival for the past nine years, with Mrs. Gruosi-Scheufele being named Honorary Citizen of Cannes in recognition of her commitment to and participation in the festivals exceptional development.

Caroline even recently designed a stunning necklace for long-time fan, Madonna, to celebrate the title of the hit song ‘Hung Up’, on Madonna’s album ‘Confessions on a Dance Floor’. The necklace is 18-carat white gold, set with 1.95-carats of white diamonds and a mobile diamond mounted on an Indian-style chain of eight brilliants.

So when this hardworking corporate go-getter takes a well deserved vacation, what is her ideal getaway haven? “On the sea, no city, just the open sea….out on a boat with nothing around me”. Turkey is her destination of choice for a little R&R because of the tranquility and greenery of the Turkish seaside. “It is very recommendable”. But when jetting off to the Turkish coast is not an option, Caroline, indulges in a different type of pleasure, a pleasure of the pallet, her guilty secret: chocolate mousse, “I’m not a chocolaty person, but once in a while I have an attack, it happens, but not too often!”

Being such an ambitious woman who can’t seem to sit still, one cannot help but wonder what she has planned for the future, both personally and professionally…“I have some personal wishes but I wont tell you” she says in all seriousness, “I’m a very superstitious person, so you should never reveal a wish or it wont come true”.

Business wise, however, there are plans to open more boutiques including two stores in Beijing, and although already very active in the region with upcoming events and exhibitions planned in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait, Chopard also plans to expand further into the Middle East, “there is a lot on the calendar, a lot!” ■