The Key People

Roy Masin
Roy began his serious interest in gemstones, fossils and minerals in 1982 after he took over the wholesale business of his father.
In 1986 he qualified as a gemologist at the Gemological Association of Great Britain and began travelling the world in search of treasures of the earth.
Once Roy had realized that he was in fact a complete “Rock Hound” he initiated his own fieldwork and mining expeditions, often living in extreme conditions on occasions for months at a time, in the pursuit of that elusive and extraordinary specimen, expeditions that always proved to be exhilarating and adventurous.

Roy subsequently developed his business further and is now a leading wholesale company in Europe trading in a vast array of crystals, minerals, fossils, meteorites and semi-precious stones, specializing in large specimens. He has participated in fairs worldwide over the past 3 decades, both buying and selling amazing specimens.

Through Roy’s frequent travels to the mining regions of Brazil he identified and developed a new product and began producing gemstone aggregates in a wide range of sizes and materials. A very successful joint venture was launched with the co operation of mine and factory owners and he began processing and packaging the selected material. “Gem gravel” was born and was launched onto the Dutch flower and plant garden market, the product was very well received. The operation built on its success and has continued to expand and currently employs some 50 local people. With moral and social compass always at the forefront, Roy established and insisted on a fair pay policy for all of the employees involved or associated in the production of the product.
Subsequently Roy with the enthusiastic endorsement of the local health authority founded a clinic open for the health care of the surrounding communities whether employed by the company or not. This innovative functional and decorative product has now expanded into a worldwide market for both indoor and outdoor decoration.

In 2012 Roy decided that the time had come to create a very unique gallery displaying some of the finest geological specimens on the planet and found great synergy with Geoclassica.

As a result “st1gallery” was born and recently opened its doors in Holland where visitors are welcome to step into a special world of geological wonderments to see and feel the exquisite beauty created by nature.

Stephen Moodie
With a wide and well-travelled background and the ability to speak German, Stephen has been a successful entrepreneur in a broad range of merchandising, including, amongst others, global demonstration marketing of European kitchen equipment, the founding of an American-style fresh juice and ‘smoothie’ manufacturing company in the UK, high performance automobiles and 19th century decorative pharmaceutical antiques.

Following this, he decided to concentrate all his efforts upon his real passion: rocks, crystals and fossils, a passion that began when, aged eleven, he began a collection of lapis lazuli, gulf pearls and turquoise from the souks of Kuwait. After a spell of sapphire mining in Australia in his twenties, his interest developed to include semi-precious stones, subsequently expanding into specimen rocks, crystals and fossils.

In 2000, Stephen founded Geoclassica as a company trading in rocks, crystals, minerals and fossils and, in 2002, met Richard, in whom he found a synergistic enthusiasm equal to his own. As a result of that meeting, Stephen and Richard teamed up to develop Geoclassica into a specialist company dedicated to the location and acquisition of the finest specimens worldwide.

Richard Scull
Richard’s life-long passion for rocks, crystals and fossils began at the age of nine when some friends came upon a cache of crystals.

Later, he was to discover a magnificent example of a fossil shark’s tooth from the Gault clay at Folkestone, donating this, on request, to the National Collection at the Science Museum. Another find was a fossil crab carapace from the chalk at Dover, also donated to the national collection.

After gaining an honours degree in geology and zoology at Bristol University, with an emphasis on the palaeontology of soft rock geology, Richard spent eighteen years with DeBeers, the international diamond company, specializing in rough diamond valuation.

Richard’s ability to speak French contributed to his secondment to Kinshasa, Zaire, as Technical & Security adviser to the government’s diamond-sorting operation. He then spent seven years as a rough diamond buyer in the former Zaire, Antwerp and Johannesburg and three years working with the Russian government as a purchasing negotiator for the Russian diamond production.

Returning to England, he spent five years buying and selling crystals in the UK and Europe, in 2000, establishing his own successful business in East Molesey, Surrey, specialising in rocks, crystals and fossils.