As a young student Damien developed a passion for gemstones. He collected rocks, fossils and minerals from around Australia and in his spare time learned to cut and polish opal.

After completing a Diploma in Business studies he worked in the Insurance and Financial Services sectors where he held senior executive positions with a number of leading international organizations.

His passion eventually led him to the opal industry where he is a Director of Cody Opal (Australia), a leading Australian opal exporting company with markets around the globe. He is also Managing Director of The National Opal Collection, a company which operates retail opal stores and museums in Australia. His companies have received Australian and Victorian Government awards for both exporting and tourism.

He is co-author of a top-selling book ‘The Opal Story’ which has been written in five different languages. Around 60,000 copies have been distributed around the globe.

In 2018 his company produced a limited release of Opal Master sets. Each set containing 216 opal samples from all of the world deposits to assist with identification, classification and grading of opal. Major laboratories and gemological institutes availed themselves of this resource and the release was quickly over- subscribed. Cody Opal Australia received a JNA Honoree award for Industry Innovation of the year for this initiative.

Cody Opal is now researching for a comprehensive new publication covering all of the World’s Opal deposits.

Damien has held various industry positions including Director of International Colored Gemstone Association (ICA) and ICA Ambassador to Australia. He has served four years as Vice President of the ICA. He is Chairman of ICA’s Compliance and Sustainability committee and founder of ICA’s charity ‘Gems Keep Giving’. He served on the Opal Committee of Jewellers Association of Australia (JAA).