Our Story

Taking a Leap of Faith and Pursuing the American Dream

If you asked our founder and CEO, Pravina Mody, about her life ambitions when she was in her early 20’s, we don’t think that living in the US and leading a successful, trusted diamond dealership was what she had in mind. After earning a degree in Gujarati in India, Pravina married Shankar Mody, a bright civil and structural engineer, and started a career as a Gujarati language teacher in India’s rural schools. Not too long afterwards, in the mid 1970’s, Shankar moved to the US to start a Master’s in Civil Engineering at the University of Houston in the hopes of pursuing the American Dream. After receiving a job offer in Houston’s Oil and Gas Industry, Pravina and their three children joined Shankar in immigrating to the United States.

Against All Odds, A Company is Born

Starting a company is not an easy endeavor – a well known fact today and in the mid-1970s. Against the odds, Pravina, a female and immigrant, connected Houston’s retail jewelers to India’s diamond market by starting Mody International, Inc. (then known as Mody & Associates). With the help of her daughter, Trupti (Tina) Shah, Pravina started Mody International from her home; she took care of kids in the morning, had a day job, and hustled to grow her client base at night. In the early 1990’s, her daughter and son-in law, Rajiv Shah, joined her in establishing Mody International as a reputed American diamond importer and wholesaler in Houston’s growing diamond market.

Today and Beyond

Today, Mody International, Inc. is a multi-generational family-owned American diamond and jewelry wholesaler and importer. As times have evolved, so has our business. We are proud to offer competitively priced loose diamonds and supply both the South and the world with conflict-free, certified and non-certified goods. We actively list our fast-moving inventory on online diamond trading networks, Rapnet and Polygon, and we are excited to be the first dealer in Houston to offer a real-time, cloud-based catalog of our diamond and jewelry inventory via MDConnect, a free mobile application available on iOS and Android devices.