About Jeremy Shepherd, Hisano Shepherd and Pearl Paradise:
Jeremy Shepherd is a leader, innovator, and a disruptor. From an early age he struck out on his own to satisfy his fierce independence, need for adventure, and a more satisfying way of life. As a teenager, he traveled to Japan alone and stayed to attend high school. He is self-taught and fluent in Japanese, Spanish and Micronesian. Through college, Jeremy worked for Passport to Languages as an interpreter of all three languages. To continue his world travels, became a flight attendant in 1996 and soon began importing pearls during his runs to Asia. In a sector dominated by generations old family businesses, Jeremy endeavored to become a first generation, self-taught pearl importer, dealer, and internet reseller. Over the past 20 years, he has traveled to pearl producing areas all over the world creating relationships with pearl producers, exporters, and people dedicated to support the pearl industry.
He is an entrepreneur and e-commerce expert who has spent more than 25 years in the digital space. My experience includes developing, curating and launching direct-to-consumer, televised deal segments for NBCUniversal and TelevisaUnivision, and building one of the largest direct-to-consumer pearl brands in the world.
Hisano has been fascinated by the art of jewelry making since early childhood.
In pursuit of this passion, she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Jewelry and Metalsmithing from California State University of Long Beach and then followed this with a Masters of Fine Arts in Jewelry at State University New York at New Paltz.
After graduation, Hisano put her passion and education to work in the jewelry industry as a designer and educator, finding a part time position at PearlParadise.com, Inc, and teaching metalsmithing and jewelry design at two separate colleges.
Today, Hisano is a permanent, full time member of the team and has since become the Chief Creative Officer overseeing all design, production and purchasing.
Hisano also launched her personal line, little h, in 2012. Her pieces have won tremendous acclaim and have found fans from the First Lady of the United States to superstar Taylor Swift and many others.
Founded in 1996 and brought online in 2000, Pearl Paradise has grown into the world’s largest online pearl company. With a custom-built, 1,300-cubic-foot vault filled with pearls, we offer a selection of pearls unlike any other pearl seller, online or off. Our commitment to offering prices 80 percent below retail has accelerated our growth.
With more than a quarter million satisfied customers to date, we have benefited greatly by word-of-mouth advertising. Our commitment to quality, customer service and unbeatable pricing and selection has helped us become the Internet’s premier source of pearl jewelry.
The reputation we have built based on the quality of our merchandise has attracted the attention of journalists around the world. We have been blessed with glowing articles in The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, USA Today, Entrepreneur Magazine, Investor’s Business Daily, and Inc. Magazine, to name just a few.
The pearl and jewelry industry has followed our growth and featured us in respected industry publications like Modern Jeweler, Jewelry News Asia, and JCK.At Pearl Paradise, we are all world-class pearl experts. Every team member is required to complete the Gemological Institute of America’s pearl diploma program.
In addition, our entire team has completed the Pearls as One, Cultured Pearl Association of America’s Pearl Specialist Certification. This course was written and created by our own CEO, Jeremy Shepherd.
