Michael Hill (jeweller)
New Zealand businessman (1938–2025)
Sir Richard Michael Hill (23 December 1938 – 29 July 2025) was a New Zealand jeweller, businessman and philanthropist who founded global jewellery retailer Michael Hill Jeweller in 1979. He retired as the company's chairman in November 2015. He resided in Arrowtown. He was an inductee of the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame and was named Ernst & Young's 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year in New Zealand.
In 2002, he was honoured with the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Early life and career
Hill was born in Whangārei on 23 December 1938, and was educated at Whangārei Boys' High School from 1949 to 1954. Hill recalled being bullied, stating that he "hated" his time at school. He left school at 16 to pursue a career as a concert violinist but a year later was told he would have had to start much younger in life to be a noteworthy musician. Hill abandoned his hopes of a career in music and started working for his uncle, Arthur Fisher, at the family jewellery store. He performed well as a salesman and window dresser, winning international awards for his efforts in the latter.
“Michael Hill (jeweller)” enters the record as new Zealand businessman (1938–2025). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Michael, Hill and jeweller can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6831142. VIAF identifies the subject as 61697498. The Library of Congress control number is n80006782. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1938, 2025, 1979 and 2015.
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This entry incorporates text from “Michael Hill (jeweller)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.