Cross-Country Journeys

DIANE IRVINE

Chief executive, Blue Nile, an online diamond retailer based in Seattle.

AGE 49 BIRTHPLACE Libertyville, Ill. ASPIRATION To write a novel

BOTH sets of my grandparents were dairy farmers. When I was in fifth grade we moved to a farm that my father had purchased. We had a couple of hundred acres, 250 head of beef cattle and 5,000 chickens.

My job was to collect the eggs without mishap, wash them so they were clean, inspect them and pack the eggs in cartons. I also drove a tractor, at 14, before I learned how to drive a car.

I thought I wanted to be a sportswriter because I grew up with the Chicago Cubs and Bears. After a Bears-Dallas Cowboys game in 1973, I wrote a letter to Dick Butkus, the Chicago Bears linebacker. Fans were booing the Bears, and I said I was proud to be at the game and apologized for the fans.

When I was in high school, my accounting instructor laid out the path for me to become a C.P.A. He said it was a long road and a lot of hard work. I decided that it would be my major in college.

I interned for Coopers & Lybrand in Chicago during my senior year in college, and I loved it from the moment I got there. My first audit was at a company called Union Special that made industrial sewing machines. Our office was right next to the payroll department, and the four women there had a combined 100 years of experience. They would always bring us desserts. After graduation, I joined the company full time.

In 1985, my soon-to-be husband, who worked for SKF Industries, was being transferred to Seattle, and I arranged a transfer, too. I was close to my family, and we were the first people in our families to move away. We left on a Tuesday and arrived on a Sunday after a detour to Mount Rushmore. When we got to Seattle it was pouring. I remember thinking at first: “It’s not Chicago. We’ll stay a year and move back.”

My husband and I learned how to rely on each other. The new city was an adjustment. I learned how to try something completely new and have confidence in what I was doing.

In 1999, I was contacted by a recruiter who had been referred by a venture capital company that had invested in a company then called Internet Diamonds. While I was cautious about a start-up, I met the founder, Mark Vadon, for dinner and thought, “I think this can work.” I joined the company as chief financial officer. Before the end of the year, the name changed to Blue Nile.

The economy was bad, and we needed money to get to profitability. Mark and I flew across the country and met with about 90 private equity firms, and not one would give us money. Then our existing investors put in additional capital.

Shortly after we were funded again, a group of us arrived in New York City to visit our suppliers. We arrived on Sept. 10, 2001. The next morning we were having a breakfast meeting at the Palace Hotel before our meetings. I went back to the hotel room, and one of the housekeepers had the television on. I saw the second tower being hit. There were five of us from Blue Nile and we felt very far from home. Walking down Fifth Avenue to our meetings, I saw the towers burning. By that time the airports were closed and there was no way to leave the city. Pictures of missing people were posted everywhere.

The city was so quiet, and after two days we met for lunch and the five of us had to decide whether to wait for the airports to open or to drive home. Driving won by a 3-to-2 vote. We left our hotel at 4:30 on Friday morning and took a car service to Newark Airport where we rented a Ford Expedition. With five drivers we made it home in 46 hours. I was the only female on the trip.

We made it to Seattle just after midnight on Saturday night. August 2001 had been our first month of profitability. We’d made $1,000, and now $600 was spent on renting the Ford Expedition. Still, it was a bonding experience with one another and with our suppliers.
Source: nytimes