Karl Schwantes
Formally recognised by the Industry Professor Association as a Subject Matter Expert in Jewellery Retail, Bespoke Design & Customer Experience under the ASQA 2025 Standards.
MEM Manufacturing & Engineering
SIR Retail Services
BSB Business Services
20+ Years Industry Experience
About Karl Schwantes
Karl Schwantes brings over two decades of experience in Australia’s luxury retail sector, with a deep specialisation in bespoke jewellery design and customer experience. As Managing Director of Xennox Diamonds — a second-generation family business established in 1976 — Karl has transformed the company into a national leader in personalised jewellery design, customer experience, and retail innovation. His career in the craft began at the age of 12, giving him one of the longest and most authentic vocational pathways of any practitioner in the Australian jewellery sector.
Under Karl’s leadership, Xennox has evolved from a traditional jeweller into an award-winning retail destination featuring augmented reality ring design, immersive in-store environments, and premium client services tailored to milestone life events. Beyond jewellery, Karl has extended his expertise to the business community through Reputable (an online platform for digital reputation building) and Reputable Academy (a training initiative for service-led small businesses), as well as authoring the bestselling consumer guide Rock Her World.
Industry Awards & Recognition
- 🏆 Qld Wedding Jeweller of the Year — 6 Consecutive Years
- 🏛️ Australian Bridal Industry Academy Hall of Fame
- 🥇 National Wedding Jeweller of the Year — ×2
- 🎖️ Telstra Business Awards Finalist
- ⭐ My Business Award — Best Customer Experience 2020
- 🎨 National Design Award Winner
ASQA 2025 Standards — Industry Expert Definition
What is an Industry Expert under the ASQA 2025 Standards?
Under the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2025, published by the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), an Industry Expert is a person with demonstrated, current vocational skills and knowledge relevant to a training product who assists in training or assessment delivery while working under the direction of a qualified trainer/assessor. Industry Experts enhance — rather than replace — qualified trainers by providing real-world application, specialist feedback, and contextual insight to vocational learners.
- Role: Provide real-world application, specialist feedback, or direct support in assessment sessions.
- Requirements: Must have demonstrated, current vocational skills and knowledge directly relevant to the training product.
- Currency Evidence: Professional memberships, active industry employment, thought leadership, publications, community engagement, and industry awards.
- Supervision: Must work under the guidance and direction of a qualified trainer/assessor who holds the required training and assessment credentials.
Following a thorough review of Karl Schwantes’ professional history, published works, awards, and ongoing industry activity, the Industry Professor Association determines that he meets all criteria to serve as an Industry Expert across the units of competency identified below. His expertise is grounded entirely in lived vocational practice — spanning hands-on jewellery design and manufacture, luxury retail management, and customer experience innovation — making his vocational currency directly aligned with the intent of the ASQA 2025 Standards.
Identified Units of Competency
The following ten current units of competency — drawn from the MEM Manufacturing and Engineering Training Package, the SIR Retail Services Training Package, and the BSB Business Services Training Package — have been identified as strongly aligned with Karl Schwantes’ demonstrated industry experience. All units are currently listed on the Australian Government’s national training register at training.gov.au.
Fabricate Jewellery Items
Covers the skills and knowledge required to use fabrication techniques to construct jewellery components, including single and multiple-piece items. Requires applied knowledge of metals, joining techniques, and finishing processes to professional production standards.
Karl has been designing and fabricating jewellery since the age of 12 and has spent his entire career in the manufacturing and finishing of custom jewellery items at Xennox Diamonds. His hands-on expertise in fabricating bespoke engagement and wedding rings — awarded nationally for design excellence — represents direct mastery of the practical fabrication competencies described in this unit.
Investigate Quality and Application of Jewellery Materials
Covers skills to investigate the quality of materials used in jewellery construction and their applications, including researching materials, and selecting appropriate materials according to construction and design requirements and their benefits and limitations.
A core requirement of bespoke engagement and wedding jewellery is expert materials selection — choosing appropriate precious metals, gemstones, and setting materials for each unique commission. Karl’s decades of custom design work, his national design awards, and his ability to integrate new materials and technologies (such as augmented reality visualisation tools) into the design process demonstrate deep applied competency in jewellery materials investigation.
Create and Manufacture Jewellery or Object Design Prototypes for the Mass Market
Covers skills to apply creative and technical processes to develop jewellery or object designs, including developing and testing prototypes and evaluating product viability for commercial production.
Karl has led Xennox Diamonds’ transition into technology-enhanced design, introducing augmented reality ring try-on and digital design prototyping for clients. This unit’s focus on translating creative concepts into manufacturable prototypes and evaluating commercial viability directly reflects Karl’s applied experience bridging design, technology, and production within a leading jewellery retail environment.
Oversee Jewellery or Object Design Production
Requires extensive skills and knowledge in jewellery and object design, materials, and construction techniques. High-level judgement is required in planning and selecting appropriate processes to oversee and manage the production of jewellery items to meet design specifications and quality standards.
As Managing Director of Xennox Diamonds, Karl is responsible for overseeing all jewellery design and production — from initial client consultation through to finished piece delivery. His accountability for maintaining award-winning quality standards across custom commissions (evidenced by six consecutive Queensland Wedding Jeweller of the Year awards) directly aligns with the production oversight competency described at this advanced level.
Create a Customer-Centric Culture
Covers the skills and knowledge required to foster a culture focused on customer needs and expectations, including role-modelling customer service standards, observing service delivery, coaching team members, and documenting improvements to customer service practice.
Creating a customer-centric culture is the defining theme of Karl’s career. His My Business Award for Best Customer Experience (2020), his authorship of Rock Her World, and his founding of Reputable Academy — a training initiative built specifically around service-led customer culture — demonstrate not just personal mastery but the ability to build, articulate, and transfer this culture to others. This unit sits at the very core of his vocational expertise.
Lead a Frontline Team
Covers the skills to lead and manage a frontline retail team by delegating work, monitoring team performance, coaching individuals, and taking action to improve service delivery standards across a retail environment.
Karl leads the team at Xennox Diamonds with a performance culture built on service excellence and emotional brand engagement. His track record in building a team that has earned national awards for customer experience quality — repeatedly and over consecutive years — demonstrates high-level frontline team leadership and performance management in a premium retail context.
Achieve Sales Results
Covers the performance outcomes, skills, and knowledge required to plan and implement sales activities and achieve sales targets in a retail environment, including applying product knowledge, building customer rapport, and converting consultative interactions into sales outcomes.
The luxury jewellery consultative sales process — which Karl has refined and championed across his career — is one of the most emotionally complex sales environments in retail. His authorship of Rock Her World, his keynote content on emotional branding and brand storytelling, and the consistent commercial success of Xennox Diamonds in a highly competitive market all reflect deep mastery of the consultative sales competency described in this unit.
Develop Strategies to Monetise Digital Engagement
Covers skills to monetise digital engagement through customer engagement strategies, content relevance, and digital payment systems — including identifying and evaluating opportunities to generate income from digital channels and measuring transaction performance.
Karl founded Reputable (formerly My 5 Star Reviews) — a platform that helps businesses convert their digital presence and customer reviews into commercial income streams. This is a direct practical application of the competency described in this unit. His teaching of digital review strategy to business owners through Reputable Academy further demonstrates his ability to transfer this knowledge professionally.
Develop Social Media Engagement Plans
Covers the skills and knowledge required to develop plans to engage with audiences through social media channels, including identifying target audiences, selecting platforms, developing content strategies, and measuring engagement outcomes.
Xennox Diamonds’ national reputation and Karl’s personal brand as a customer experience authority have been built significantly through strategic social media engagement. His Reputable platform and Academy teach small business owners how to build five-star reputations through deliberate social media and review management — demonstrating both personal mastery and the ability to teach this competency to others.
Undertake Marketing Activities
Covers skills to prepare, coordinate, and review marketing activities, including conducting market analysis, implementing marketing tasks, analysing outcomes, and contributing to broader marketing plans across a variety of business contexts.
Karl has conducted the full spectrum of marketing activity for Xennox Diamonds — from brand storytelling and event marketing to digital campaigns and community sponsorships — resulting in sustained market leadership in Queensland’s bridal jewellery sector. His public speaking on emotional branding and his national television appearances as a retail authority further demonstrate marketing competency in both execution and communication.
Rationale for Recognition as Industry Expert
The Industry Professor Association’s assessment of Karl Schwantes against the ASQA 2025 Standards is grounded in four key criteria: duration and depth of vocational experience, demonstrated current industry practice, peer and institutional recognition, and commitment to knowledge transfer.
Demonstrated Vocational Skills & Knowledge
Karl’s vocational journey in jewellery began at age 12 and has developed into one of the most comprehensive industry portfolios in Australian luxury retail. His skills span the full jewellery value chain — design conceptualisation, materials selection, fabrication, client consultation, retail presentation, and business strategy. This is not academic knowledge; it is embodied craft and commercial practice refined over more than two decades of active industry participation.
Currency of Industry Knowledge
Karl remains an active managing director of a trading jewellery retail business. He is not a former practitioner — he is currently leading Xennox Diamonds, operating Reputable, and delivering Reputable Academy training to business owners. His introduction of augmented reality technology into the Xennox client experience demonstrates that his knowledge is current, forward-looking, and continuously evolving with the industry he serves.
Peer & Institutional Recognition
Karl’s recognition by industry peers is exceptional in both volume and diversity. He has been named Queensland Wedding Jeweller of the Year six times consecutively, inducted into the Australian Bridal Industry Academy Hall of Fame, and won two national wedding jewellery titles. As an individual operator, he has been recognised by the Telstra Business Awards and named Best Customer Experience by My Business Awards (2020). National television and business forum appearances further cement his status as a trusted industry authority.
Commitment to Knowledge Transfer
Few industry practitioners demonstrate the commitment to knowledge-sharing that Karl has. He authored Rock Her World — a bestselling consumer education guide for engagement ring purchasing — and founded Reputable Academy specifically to teach other business owners the principles of customer experience excellence. He regularly delivers keynote presentations and workshops for small business owners and industry professionals, covering brand storytelling, service innovation, and reputation management.
Cross-Sector Industry Breadth
While Karl’s foundation is jewellery retail, his expertise has been successfully transferred to the broader small business and retail sectors through Reputable and Reputable Academy. This cross-sector applicability means that vocational students in retail, business services, and customer experience training programs can benefit from Karl’s real-world insights regardless of their specific industry pathway.
Relevance to VET Training Products
The ten units of competency identified span three training packages at Certificate III, Certificate IV, Diploma, and Advanced Diploma levels — covering jewellery manufacture, retail management, customer experience, and digital marketing. Karl’s lived experience maps directly to the elements and performance criteria of each unit, giving vocational students access to applied, current, contextually rich expertise that extends and validates classroom-delivered theory.
Evidence of Current Industry Engagement
Under the ASQA 2025 Standards, an industry expert must demonstrate evidence of current and recent engagement with their vocational field. The following confirms Karl Schwantes’ active currency:
- Currently active as Managing Director of Xennox Diamonds, a trading luxury jewellery retail and design business (est. 1976)
- Active founder and operator of Reputable — an online platform for small business digital reputation building (formerly My 5 Star Reviews)
- Active founder and facilitator of Reputable Academy — an ongoing training program delivering customer experience and reputation workshops to business owners
- Regular keynote speaker and workshop facilitator for small business owners and industry professionals on customer experience and brand storytelling
- Author of Rock Her World — a current, publicly available bestselling consumer guide to engagement ring purchasing
- National television appearances and business forum participation as a recognised retail and customer experience authority
- Queensland Wedding Jeweller of the Year — six consecutive years, most recently recognised in the current award cycle
- Inducted into the Australian Bridal Industry Academy Hall of Fame — a peer-awarded recognition of sustained industry contribution
- Introduction of augmented reality ring design technology at Xennox Diamonds — demonstrating ongoing innovation and current technology adoption
- My Business Award — Best Customer Experience 2020, evidencing recognition within the broader Australian business community
INDPA Recognition Statement
Industry Professor Association — Subject Matter Expert Recognition
The Industry Professor Association (INDPA) formally recognises Karl Schwantes as a Subject Matter Expert in the field of Jewellery Retail, Bespoke Design & Customer Experience, encompassing jewellery design and manufacture, luxury retail management, customer experience innovation, and digital reputation building.
This recognition is consistent with the intent of the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) Standards for RTOs 2025, which recognise that industry experts with demonstrated, current vocational skills and knowledge make a valuable contribution to vocational education and training (VET) delivery when working under the direction of a qualified trainer/assessor.
Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) wishing to engage Karl Schwantes as an Industry Expert to support training and assessment delivery in the competency areas identified above are encouraged to contact the Industry Professor Association at www.industryprofessor.org.
- About the Author
- More info
As CEO of Industry Professor Association, I have a passion for education and learning that leads towards a productive outcome for Industry. The Industry Professor Association is a non-profit organisation that recognises industry expertise and experience and helps members gain the ultimate recognition of their Industry career. We also help organise their industry expertise by converting it into digital learning products and sharing it with a learner hungry world.
As a previous Head of School – Southbank Institute of Technology, it gave me great insight into educational design, corporate client learning needs, government policy and strategies. My goal was to meet the needs of industry in regards to providing graduates who were highly trained in practical skills and employability skills. Whilst meeting the learning style of a generation that is highly engaging with communication channels, and immersed in collaboration to gain learning at their time, place and pace.