When he went to college in the late ‘90s, Sean Dunn, who grew up surfing and fishing in Florida, thought he was going to become a marine biologist. Today, he is president of J.R. Dunn Jewelers.
Editor’s Note: This story first appeared in the print edition of the 2026 Retailer Hall of Fame. Click here to see the full issue.
Sean Dunn is a leader, not a follower.
He joined his parents in the family business in 1997 and since then has continued to implement initiatives at J.R. Dunn Jewelers that later were adopted industrywide, he says.
He became one of the first independent retailers with an e-commerce site when he launched JRDunn.com in 2005 and now is one of a small but growing number of retailers and brands emphasizing diamond origin.
Sean has taken the life lessons his parents taught him, and with his knowledge and experience, transformed J.R. Dunn Jewelers into a modern retailer built by family for families.
“I learned from both. I love diamonds. I love colored gemstones. I love all the same things that they loved. The innovative side of the business, that’s where my heart’s at now,” Sean says.
Despite his passion for the business today, Sean didn’t know he was destined to be a second-generation jeweler right from the start.
Like many teenagers in Florida, he was more focused on going to the beach to surf and fish. He started college with the aspiration of becoming a marine biologist.
It wasn’t until his sophomore year at the University of Florida that he switched his major to business. When he graduated in 1996, his father gently guided him into enrolling at the Gemological Institute of America, which was in Santa Monica, California, at the time.
“He said, ‘Why don’t you take your surfboard and drive to California? Go enroll, get your gemology [diploma], see if you like this business,’” Sean recalls.
With his surfboard in the car, Sean and a friend from college headed across the country to Southern California.
“Of course, getting a chance to surf Malibu when I could was the fun part,” he says.
“I did that and I fell in love with everything about gemology. I enjoyed diamond grading but most of all, I enjoyed gemstone identification, which was the most challenging. It was a remarkable experience meeting everybody from all around the world who was there to learn this cool business.”
After earning his Graduate Gemologist diploma, Sean went on to work in sales at the Ben Bridge Jeweler store in Costa Mesa, California, a retailer that shared the same commitment to ethics and integrity as his parents.
“When I went to Ben Bridge, I learned about selling the company and selling the ethics and selling what they stood for. It really shaped part of my vision of being able to story tell at J.R. Dunn,” Sean says.
After a year at Ben Bridge, Sean returned to Florida and became vice president at J.R. Dunn Jewelers.
From House of Gems to J.R. Dunn Jewelers The story of J.R. Dunn Jewelers started before Sean was born.
His parents, James (Jim) Robert Dunn and Ann Marie Pelliccia, were co-workers at IBM. Jim was a sales representative, and Ann Marie was a secretary.
The two fell in love and married in 1969, the same year they decided to use their savings to open a jewelry store in Hanover, Massachusetts.
They called it House of Gems because it was in a small house that had been converted into a store.
Ann Marie and Jim Dunn outside their first jewelry store, House of Gems, in Hanover, Massachusetts.
“They always enjoyed traveling and one of their traditions wherever they were was to stop into jewelry stores. They would pick up a memento for their trip,” Sean says, a habit that sparked a passion.
Ann Marie, who immigrated to the United States from Italy at age 10, always had an appreciation for the craftsmanship and beauty of jewelry, her son says.
Jim bought a microscope during his time at IBM, took some classes at GIA, and fell in love with anything to do with geology and gemology.
During the first year House of Gems was open, burglars broke in and stole every piece of jewelry in the store, including repairs. Unfortunately, the burglary happened while they were between insurance policies, Sean says, and his parents had to pay out of pocket to cover the losses.
The Dunns soon outgrew the small space in Hanover and moved the business into a mall in South Weymouth, Massachusetts.
That is when they became J.R. Dunn Jewelers, a move made to better communicate that it is a family-owned, family-run jewelry retailer.
In 1978, Jim and Ann Marie moved from Massachusetts to Florida with young Sean and Ann Marie’s parents.
Along with the J.R. Dunn Jewelers store up north, Jim ran Oro International, which focused on wholesaling imported Italian jewelry. It operated from the J.R. Dunn in Massachusetts and a small by-appointment showroom also under the J.R. Dunn name in Lighthouse Point, Florida.
Jim was flying back and forth keeping the other store going, Sean says, while Ann Marie focused on the Florida business and raising Sean until they found a buyer for the J.R. Dunn Jewelers location in Massachusetts.
The Dunns inside J.R. Dunn Jewelers' first showroom in Lighthouse Point, Florida
It was also at this time that the Dunns brought Ann Marie’s youngest brother Robert Pelliccia, who was 18 years old at the time, on as a bench jeweler. Pelliccia, who has won numerous awards for his one-of-a-kind designs, works as the store’s in-house designer to this day.
In the mid-‘80s Jim bought a building down the street from the joint Oro International office and J.R. Dunn Jewelers showroom on Federal Highway after Ann Marie saw that the furniture store that occupied the space had closed and the building was for sale.
This 6,000-square-foot space became the J.R. Dunn Jewelers that is known today, though originally the retailer only occupied about 30 percent of the building, and the rest was rented out to Coldwell Banker.
At left, Ann Marie and Jim Dunn on their honeymoon in Italy and, at right, Sean cutting the ribbon with his parents to celebrate the opening of the first J.R. Dunn Jewelers showroom in Florida.
At left, Sean with his parents Ann Marie and Jim and, at right, Robert Pelliccia at the bench with his son Matt, who now works at the store too, in the background.
The Dunns worked together as a team of three.
Ann Marie’s exceptional taste made her the buyer. Jim was involved in all areas of the business, but he focused on the store’s marketing and finance, while Sean looked for ways to modernize the business.
“My dad was a schmoozer, but my mom was the business end of the deal. That was the dynamic between the two of them, and I very much followed right down the middle,” Sean says.
They ran the business together until Jim’s death in 2021 at age 78.
Jim is remembered as a charitable man who treated everyone at J.R. Dunn as family, from his employees to his customers.
“It’s crazy to say—of course I realized my dad was special—but I never realized what an impact he had on everybody. It really was just remarkable,” Sean says.
“Working with him was special. I remember the first time I came into the store, and his lessons in life were always [about] humility. Of course, being a second-generation [jeweler] in a successful business, that is a hard lesson to learn.”
The latter, known as “Diamond in the Ruff,” helps hard-to-adopt animals find homes by featuring an adoptable animal in J.R. Dunn’s marketing every week and picturing them wearing fine jewelry on the store’s social media around the holidays.
“It’s one of the biggest highlights of December for our team,” says Sean. “They love the puppies and kittens when they visit. One year, they even brought a ferret.”
The program launched in 2015. Since then, J.R. Dunn has covered the adoption fee for hundreds of animals.
Animals accessorize with fine jewelry during the holidays for J.R. Dunn Jewelers' "Diamond in the Ruff" initiative underwriting the adoption fee for animals with the Humane Society of Broward County. At right, Sean and his wife Viviana Dunn with two puppies wearing necklaces.
“His father was an amazing person, and he was the life of the business. He had a personality that everybody loved,” says Robert Pelliccia.
“Sean, of course, was devastated [when he died]. It took him a while to deal with that loss, but once that grieving period was [done, he was] able to get back to work, and he grabbed the business with two hands.
“He’s got such a vision for the business. He took it to a different level because of that vision.”
Robyn Moncrief, a J.R. Dunn client since 2014, has seen the transition from the Dunn parents to just Ann Marie and then to Sean, who became president of J.R. Dunn Jewelers in 2025.
“[Sean has] always been part of that family business and as the years have gone on, he has stepped up and stepped in and is coming into his own,” she says.
“Sean is now the presence that his father used to be in the store.”
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A Driver of Innovation Since Sean joined his parents at J.R. Dunn, he has strived to tell the story behind each piece of jewelry and to bring new technology to the business.
“I think Sean, while he stays in his family traditions, he’s also always looking forward and looking to expand and improve,” Moncrief says.
In 2005, he established J.R. Dunn’s successful e-commerce site, JRDunn.com, becoming one of the first independent jewelers to sell online.
Sean says the website came to be after a marketing consultant showed him Google AdWords (now Google Ads) and he saw a jeweler’s business on eBay. He was impressed, so he hired an e-commerce manager and used a platform called Volusion to create a website for the store.
“Within a couple of months—I’ll never forget it—we sold a pair of Roberto Coin earrings in North Carolina. It was like $4,500. I was like, holy shit! We started selling all sorts of crazy stuff. It just started snowballing,” Sean says.
He says the store made “several hundred thousand” dollars online that first year, and then it doubled and doubled again, with the store ultimately bringing in around $10 million in revenue online during the pandemic.
At first, the website caused friction between J.R. Dunn Jewelers and some of its brands, which did not want the independent retailer to do e-commerce, Sean says, but eventually it became the norm.
In 2025, Sean fulfilled his father’s vision of creating a new, more modern home for J.R. Dunn Jewelers.
Sean headed the remodel and expansion of J.R. Dunn Jewelers in 2025.
The store was remodeled and expanded, growing from 8,000 to nearly 14,000 square feet, making it one of the largest independent jewelry stores in the country.
The store’s operations also were consolidated from the three buildings that held its administration offices, e-commerce, and accounting into one.
It was the biggest risk Sean ever took as head of the business.
He says, “Now that my mom’s not in the business, my dad’s not in the business, it’s up to me. In the back of your mind you say, ‘I think I can do this, but does everyone have that same confidence in you as they had in the previous generation?’”
Sean completed the remodel with the help of his wife Viviana Dunn, who has a background in interior design, and his childhood best friend Mike Janoura, who specializes in commercial shopping center construction.
“We tell the story that the old crafts are alive and well here at J.R. Dunn.” –Sean Dunn, J.R. Dunn Jewelers
Vivianna redesigned the store to have the warmth of a home, a purposeful choice as Sean prioritizes hospitality.
It has tall ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows to let in natural light when viewing diamonds, and modern colors accented by Swarovski crystal chandeliers.
The store features a state-of-the-art jewelry workshop with a viewing window, a semi-private bridal area, and a Heritage Lounge containing memorabilia including the original House of Gems sign.
The Lighthouse Point store before the remodel
Viviana Dunn assisted with the design of the new store, resulting in a more modern look.
The updated space features a Breitling salon with a full bar.
“We tell the story that the old crafts are alive and well here at J.R. Dunn,” Sean says. “You can see in; there’s everything on display from laser welders to our diamond setter and the engraving machines.”
The people customers are likely to see in the workshop include the store’s Level 60 Rolex certified watchmaker, its five bench jewelers, and Pelliccia.
“When we hire jewelers, sometimes it takes us three, four, five, months to hire one person because we’re looking for that special person with the skill that can be of the quality we expect here, and that we want for our clients,” Pelliccia says.
Alongside Pelliccia’s custom design showcases are Rolex and Tudor salons, as well as a Breitling salon with a full bar.
The store also carries jewelry from Roberto Coin, Messika, Marco Bicego, Tacori, John Hardy, and J.R. Dunn’s private label.
Days before the soft opening of the new store, Sean and Ann Marie had a déjà vu moment. Someone drove a truck through the front window in a smash-and-grab attempt, but this time, they didn’t steal anything of value.
Tracing Natural Diamonds to the Source Years ago, J.R. Dunn added lab-grown diamonds to its offerings through Diamond Foundry.
Sean says the store’s young employees loved the idea, and Diamond Foundry provided studies on lab-grown diamonds’ allegedly lower carbon footprint.
Along the way, the promise of doing something different, innovative, and “carbon neutral” started falling apart as Sean started doing some research of his own.
“I think the public was greatly misinformed by the lab-grown industry,” he says.
“I think the greenwashing was a primary motivator for me to start advocating for natural diamonds. I watched it left and right, and then once I learned the story of Botswana, every time somebody put [natural diamonds] down, it made my skin crawl.”
Sean began researching blockchain and keeping tabs on the development of Tracr, De Beers Group’s blockchain.
“The industry definitely needs more Sean Dunns, people who are not afraid to go against the grain.” –Ada Thela, Zoë Diamonds
He also had to get his team on board with championing natural diamonds.
Sean and his employees spoke with veteran industry marketer Brandee Dallow about the vetting process for different De Beers suppliers.
He sent the store’s art director and marketing director, who were adamantly team lab grown, to JCK Las Vegas to attend every education session they could and to interview people at the Angola pavilion and from De Beers.
Sean also did research on Reddit, asking the Botswana sub-Reddit if diamonds truly do good for their communities, and had conversations on LinkedIn.
“People would tell me, ‘Well, I’m in this position because I had a free education and we go to the best universities,’” says Sean, adding that everyone talks about the technical side of diamond traceability, but the human side is important too.
Sean then launched Single Source, J.R. Dunn’s own collection and its first step into tracing a diamond all the way back to its country of origin.
He spent months creating cards for the store’s showcases that would allow consumers to access a diamond’s blockchain record via a QR code.
“Then [De Beers’] Origin [program] comes out and I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is exactly what I was trying to do but 10 times better.’ I was in, hook, line, and sinker. I knew they had their first customer,” Sean says.
LinkedIn is where he met Ada Thela, founder and managing director of Zoë Diamonds.
She was part of a youth empowerment program funded by Botswana’s Okavango Diamond Company, did an apprenticeship with WDM-Botswana, and opened her own diamond company in 2023, which employs Botswana locals.
In fall 2025, Sean and Thela entered a rough diamond auction. Sean had to go through a grueling background check by Okavango Diamond Company before he could register as a buyer.
“It was the craziest financial examination that I’ve ever gone through in my whole entire life. They wanted to know every bit of ownership structure, everything about me, everything about my business. I could not believe the vetting,” Sean says.
“You don’t have to do any of that for a lab-grown diamond.”
Sean and Thela won a 5.79-carat rough diamond.
Zoë Diamonds cut and polished the rough into a 2.51-carat round brilliant diamond and set it in a ring.
Sean explains, “She guided me every step of the way, showed me pictures of the rough, showed me what it was going to yield, told me it’s in GIA, and I was so focused on getting that one diamond.”
The rough also yielded a 0.40-carat oval diamond that was set into a second ring, resulting in the “Two-From-One” ring set that debuted in June.
The J.R. Dunn x Zoë Diamonds "Two-From-One" ring set features a 2.51-carat round brilliant diamond and a 0.40-carat oval brilliant diamond sourced from Botswana and set in two 18-karat yellow gold rings with white gold prongs ($30,750).
“I wanted to design something that would be able to tell the story of Botswana and the beneficiaries,” says Sean, who aims to change the way natural diamonds are perceived and sold.
The rings can symbolize a couple with one ring for each, one as an engagement ring and the other an anniversary present, or one as an engagement ring and the other saved as the first diamond for the couple’s first child.
Sean notes that the story behind a piece is always about the couple more than it is about the diamond’s country of origin, but these two rings still convey a feel-good message and confidence in sourcing.
“As someone who’s from a country that’s rich in natural diamonds and someone who has seen and encountered firsthand what they’ve done for our people, it’s only natural that I love and support what Sean does in terms of his advocacy,” Thela says.
“The industry definitely needs more Sean Dunns, people who are thought leaders, visionary leaders, and [who are] not afraid to go against the grain.”
Sean and Viviana Dunn with the next generation, their daughter Briana (left) and son Nicolas (right)
The Third Generation Now that Sean is in his late father’s position as head of the store, he’s following his advice not to pressure his children into joining the family business.
But that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t love it.
“I think it looks more promising than when I was in high school,” says Sean, though he doesn’t want to jinx it.
His daughter Briana is headed to an international business school in Madrid to study digital marketing communications, a deliberate choice, Sean notes, as many luxury fashion houses are headquartered in Europe.
His son Nicolas is headed to business school in Switzerland to study hospitality while being near Geneva, a hub for the luxury watch industry.
“They’re already planting their feet. They know what they love in terms of the direction and it’s a wonderful thing to see,” Sean says.
“I don’t want to add pressure. As I learned from my father with me, you just let it happen.”
