Vice President, CIBJO; Member, CIBJO/GAHK Fei Cui Working Group; Dean, CIBJO Academy

Prior to joining GIA as Director of Research in 2005, Ken served as the Laboratory Director at the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) Gemological Testing Centre in New York; Director of the Asian Institute of Gemmological Sciences (AIGS) in Bangkok; and Chief Executive and Director of Laboratory Services at the Gemmological Association and Gem Testing Laboratory of Great Britain (GAGTL) (the forerunner of Gem-A) in London. He was appointed Managing Director of GIA Southeast Asia in 2008, in which role he set up and ran GIA’s Bangkok Laboratory, helped setting up GIA Laboratory Hong Kong and GIA Laboratory Japan as well as overseeing GIA’s coloured stone and pearl operations globally. He retired in 2015 but in 2016 became a consultant to Mumtalakat (the Sovereign Wealth Fund for Bahrain) focusing on expanding the capabilities of the Gem & Pearl Testing Laboratory of Bahrain which he had helped set up 25 years previously.

Having set up a new entity (DANAT) to take over the functions of GPTLB and lead it to a global leadership in pearl testing between 2016 and 2019, Ken returned to Bangkok leading the ICAGemLab. Over his career, he assisted in the setting up of pearl and gem laboratories in Bahrain, Qatar and Dubai and consulted for the Bombay Pearl Association to improve their testing facilities. He has been involved in many projects, not the least of which was the examination of the British Crown Jewels; here he detailed every stone in such notable items as the Imperial State Crown, St. Edwards Crown, the Queen Mothers Crown, and the Sceptres. He detailed and graded both the Cullinan I and II diamonds and the Koh-I-Noor, three diamonds that represent the largest and most historically significant.
A writer and speaker on gemmological and trade issues, Ken’s articles have appeared in numerous industry publications including The Journal of Gemmology (UK) and Gems and Gemmology (USA). He also co-authored the books The Crown Jewels and The Pearl and the Dragon. Ken has lectured to gemmologists and traders in many countries including Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka, UAE, UK and the USA.

In addition to his passion for diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and jade, which he explored during his early visits to Hong Kong in the 1980’s, Ken also has a strong interest in pearls and has visited many of the cultured pearl farms around the world and natural pearl producing areas. Having retired from laboratory operations, today Ken focuses his time on his various roles within the World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO) were he is currently the Dean of the CIBJO Academy as well as being a Vice President of CIBJO, President of CIBJO’s Sector A, President of CIBJO’s Pearl Commission, and Vice President of CIBJO’s Coral Commission.