Tom Overton (toverton@gia.edu) is the president of AESE.
Tom has been managing editor of Gems & Gemology, the professional journal of the Gemological Institute of America, since 2002. A native of New York and Texas, his interest in geology and gemstones was first sparked while hunting for geodes and agates in the dry riverbeds of the Texas Hill Country as a child.
Tom arrived at G&G with an eclectic background, beginning with his service in the U.S. Navy as a nuclear reactor operator during the 1980s. After earning a bachelor's in English from the University of Southern California and a law degree from the UCLA (where he was Executive Editor of the UCLA Law Review), he worked as a practicing attorney specializing in intellectual property issues, general counsel of an Internet e-book start-up company, and managing editor with a California legal publisher.
A self-described “attorney/editor/gemologist,” he has published on such disparate subjects as diamond cut patents, the ethics of lawyer jokes, synthetic gem materials grown from biological remains, and the prevalence of silicosis among Asian lapidary workers, in addition to editing almost 30 books on legal and gemological subjects. He participates regularly in professional conferences, and has given several presentations on science editing and legal issues in the gem and jewelry industry.
Tom earned a Graduate Gemologist degree from GIA in 2003 and a Diploma in Gemmology (FGA) from the Gemmological Association of Great Britain in 2008. He is also a member of the Copyright and In-House Counsel committees of the Intellectual Property Section of the State Bar of California.
His interests include gardening, hiking, and working on his BMW. He and his wife Julie have three children.
