我们的员工

Meet the team behind Willie Creek Pearls.

Robert Banfield

Chairman

My family and I have been operating Willie Creek Pearls for over 30 years. I am very hands on in my role overseeing our pearling operations and you'll often see me in the garden at the Willie Creek Pearl Farm. I'm passionate about making sure our team deliver the best experiences for our customers in the showroom and on tour.

Paul Birch

Chief Executive Officer | Pearling Master

As well as being CEO, I am responsible for all commercial pearling operations and disseminating the world of pearling to our staff and the world at large. Being the Pearling Master means I am also the delegated person in our company to handle a number of process and documents with the Department of Fisheries.

Laurie Lord

General Manager of Retail Operations

Having been with the business for over 20 years my job is multi-faceted, however, my biggest focus is getting our pearls from ‘shell to showroom’. Essentially once we have the pearls from a harvest we work with our jewellers to set the pearls into the beautiful designs you see in our showrooms.

Rahim Bin Hitam

Willie Creek Pearl Farm Team Leader

Over my 9 years with Willie Creek I have done just about everything there is to do within the business. Currently I would say my main role is overseeing our tours, but if need be, I could comfortably step into any one of several roles. This could lead to me having a day selling pearls in one of our showrooms, answering calls on the company bookings phone or my personal favourite, chipping shell with the pearling crew out on our sea lease.

Claire Waylen

Product Manager

My role is centred around turning our Australian South Sea Cultured Pearls into the jewellery range you see in our showrooms. This begins with going through every new batch of pearls we produce, assessing each pearl to decide which piece of jewellery it should be made into and working closely with our jewellers to make this happen. It’s always exciting to see a new batch of pearls. There are usually a few pearls in each batch which really jump out at me - after more than a decade of working with them, I still see pearls which surprise me and are unlike any other.

Giulietta Lombardi

Product and Customer Service Coordinator 

In this role I am responsible for the maintenance and distribution of our freshwater pearl jewellery to showrooms, and customer service both in person or, for our interstate and international customers, over the phone and via email.  I look after enquiries, aftercare and product information. My favourite part of my role is helping customers find the perfect pearl for themselves or a gift for a special person and occasion.