Hisham Mackie

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Hisham Mackie (born 1969 [1] ) is a Sierra Leonean businessman. He is by far the biggest diamond exporter from Sierra Leone, accounting for 51% of all official Sierra Leone diamond exports [2] [3] Mackie runs H.M Diamond, a company which accounted for 40% of all diamond exports in 2005. [4]

Biography

Hisham Mackie was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone on April 6, 1969 to a Sierra Leonean-Lebanese family which has been in the diamond business since 1952. His father, a second generation Sierra Leonean-Lebanese, was among the first diamond dealers licensed by the Sierra Leone government during the early sixties. Mackie did his secondary education at the famous and elite Bo School in Bo and graduated in 1986. After graduating from the Bo School, he went to England where he attended the University of London in 1987. Mackie joined the diamond business in 2002 as an export license holder.

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References

  1. Hisham Mackie: Sierra Leone’s Biggest Diamond Exporter, Diamond Industry Annual Review, Sierre Leone 2004, p. 7; Partnership Africa Canada. Retrieved July 10, 2010
  2. Dixon, Robyn (May 25, 2006). "The World; Diamonds More Burden Than Asset for Sierra Leone; The prized gems fueled a 10-year civil war in the poor nation, which has seen most of the trading and exporting profits fall into foreign hands". Los Angeles Times . Koidu. pp. A.5.
  3. Dixon, Robyn (March 13, 2006). "Diamond labor yields little". The Seattle Times . Koidu. Archived from the original on June 22, 2011. Retrieved July 10, 2010.
  4. Mohamed Massaquoi (January 12, 2006). "Sierra Leone: $140 Million Exported: a Once-Struggling Sector Registers Net Gains". Concord Times. Freetown.