Jeremy Shepherd
Founder, Pearl Paradise | President, The Pearl Association of America
- cultured pearls
- akoya pearls
- Tahitian pearls
- South Sea pearls
- Freshwater pearls
- pearl grading
- pearl farming
- pearl sourcing
- pearl identification
- pearl industry
Jeremy Shepherd founded Pearl Paradise in 1996 while working as a flight attendant, using his routes to Asia to begin importing pearls. Thirty years later, Pearl Paradise is one of the most trusted names in pearls, with sourcing relationships across pearl farms in Japan, French Polynesia, Australia, Fiji, Mexico, China, and the Philippines.
In 2004, he founded Pearl-Guide.com, the largest independent pearl forum on the internet. He serves as president of The Pearl Association of America, a non-profit trade organization promoting cultured pearls in the United States since 1957. He is the author of Pearls As One, the pearl industry's leading certification course, translated into 10 languages and used by industry members worldwide.
He has produced three pearl industry documentaries, Pearls the Documentary, The Tahitian Pearl and Power of Pearl, and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Financial Times, USA Today, Newsweek, Inc., Entrepreneur, Freakonomics Radio, and many industry publications.
