WOME N OF ACHIEVEMENT
kristine wylie
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Linda died in 2021 after a battle with cancer, but she had appointed Kristine as Jewelsmith’s president the year prior. After Linda’s passing, Kristine found herself making big decisions for the business and overseeing all day-to-day operations at the Erwin Square showroom and workshop. “My biggest achievement is moving up the ranks, [having] started with hardly any responsibilities to now being one of the owners,” here was a classified ad in a newspaper, Kristine Kristine says. “[Linda left] the store to me and five other employees. Wylie recalls, maybe in The Herald-Sun or The News “Another huge achievement is getting through the pandemic & Observer, for a part-time receptionist position unscathed.” The storefront was closed to the public, of course, at a jewelry store. It was 2003, and Kristine had recently during those early months of 2020, the same year of Linda’s transferred to N.C. State University to study diagnosis. They operated with a skeleton crew of just communications after earning her associate five employees allowed inside at any one time in order degree from Durham Technical Community to keep production from stalling completely. Kristine College. “I had just gotten laid off from was there daily, hoping to keep the ship afloat “so working as a receptionist at an IT recruiting Linda had something to come back to,” she says. Every Step firm [that closed],” Kristine remembers. “I Despite the difficulties of those months, Kristine forward made the most out of unplanned events that led Jewelsmith to record-breaking sales last year. “I’m working here has been a big seemed devastating at the time.” really proud of that,” she says, “Especially because of us achievement Kristine got the job at Jewelsmith and has losing Linda and having to navigate such uncertainty.” for me. ... worked at the custom fine jeweler ever since. Kristine’s always relied on simple hard work to pull I just never Having spent most of her life in the Bull through the rocky moments. She points to a Michelle thought in a City (she’s a Riverside High School grad Obama quote that’s printed on her weekly planner million years who frequents nostalgic favorites like Hope – where she still pencils in meetings and tasks the that I would Valley Diner), Kristine is proud to work at old-fashioned way – that says, “The only limits for be steering a homegrown business that, as she puts it, “is one of the height of your achievements is the reach of your the ship. Durham’s original cool kids.” dreams and your willingness to work hard for them.” She’s spent the past two decades receiving a handsIt was Linda who convinced Kristine to hire an on education in jewelry manufacturing and gemology, photography, assistant to help with her workload when she noticed her staying marketing, accounting and just about any other task that the late most evenings. “I did work very hard on my own,” Kristine business needed doing. “The best way to learn was to be immersed says, “but the reason I’ve also achieved so much in my career here is in it and learn from my colleagues, most of whom had been at because of the team that I work with.” – by Renee Ambroso Jewelsmith for 10 or 15 years already,” Kristine says. Jewelsmith’s founder, Linda McGill, was often Kristine’s cheerleader as she took on roles of increasing authority. “[Linda] was like my second mom because I feel like I grew up [at Jewelsmith] … and I learned a lot from her,” Kristine says.
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