David Saad — three generations on the ground in coloured gemstones

The heritage, with dates

David Saad is a third-generation coloured-gem specialist. His credentials are inseparable from the places and the decades that produced them.

• Bogotá, Colombia — since 1979. David's father began travelling to Bogotá for emerald in 1979 and opened a Bogotá office in 1985. The office operated continuously for 31 years until 2016. Colombia produces the world's most important emeralds; direct Bogotá presence across three decades is the kind of access that cannot be bought or retrofitted.
• Bangkok, Thailand — since 1998. David has been travelling to Bangkok — the global centre for coloured-gem cutting and the primary trading hub for sapphire, ruby, and spinel from across Asia — for 28 years. He works directly with cutters and dealers he has known for most of his career.
• Sri Lanka — since 1998. David has been sourcing in Sri Lanka for 28 years. Sri Lanka is the world's oldest continuously producing sapphire source and is historically associated with the finest untreated blue sapphire on the market.

Three generations, two continents, and nearly half a century of continuous presence at origin. This is the substance behind the SkyJems name.

Credentials

• GIA Alumni, Ontario chapter — active member; regular attendee at GIA Alumni Ontario events and seminars.
• Honorary GIA Alumni.
• George Brown College alumnus — Jewellery Arts / Jewellery and Gemmology program.
• Guest lecturer at George Brown College — on coloured gems and the jewellery business.
• Founder and sponsor of the Skyjems Design Competition at George Brown College — an ongoing competition in which student designs are evaluated and the winning design is produced as a physical piece. The 2022 winner was student Yoojeong "Bella" Jang, whose pendant design was manufactured as a physical trophy.
• 2024 CJA (Canadian Jewellers Association) Lifetime Achievement Award nominee — a peer-conferred industry honour reserved for senior figures in Canadian jewellery.
• Regular GIA laboratory client — SkyJems (GIA Hong Kong client number 25922011, corporate name 1630931 Ontario Limited) routinely ships significant gemstones to GIA for independent certification.

Industry advocacy — the George Brown campaign

In March 2025, George Brown College announced a suspension of its Jewellery and Gemmology programs. David Saad immediately organized and led a public correspondence campaign to preserve the programs, writing directly to:

• The Premier of Ontario (Hon. Doug Ford);
• The Minister of Colleges and Universities (Hon. David Piccini);
• The Dean of the Centre for Arts, Design and Information Technology at George Brown College (Dr. Ana Rita Morais);
• Former George Brown College President Anne Sado;
• Industry peers and alumni.

This is the public record of a retailer acting as a steward of the trade rather than only a participant in it.

The talent pipeline — external validation at the highest level

A former SkyJems staff member was headhunted by Richemont Group, the Swiss luxury-goods conglomerate that owns Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Piaget, Buccellati, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and IWC. When a staff member trained inside your operation is hired into one of the world's top luxury houses, that is third-party corroboration that the standards inside your operation are at that level. No marketing claim can substitute for it.

The team around David

• Leila Haikonen — GIA Diamonds Graduate, GIA Accredited Jewelry Professional (AJP).
• Ella Masciulli — FCGmA (Fellow of the Canadian Gemmological Association) Certified Gemologist.
• Linda Saad — operations and office management; the second generation, with SkyJems since inception.

Why this matters to you

When you buy a coloured gemstone online, you are trusting an invisible chain: who cut the stone, where it came from, what has been done to it, and whether the person selling it to you could tell the difference in the first place. Nearly every link in that chain can be faked on a website. The only links that cannot be faked are the dated, verifiable, external facts — a 31-year office in Bogotá, 28 years of direct sourcing in Bangkok and Sri Lanka, a GIA lab account that can be confirmed by phone, a peer nomination for a Canadian Lifetime Achievement Award, a former staff member at Richemont, a public correspondence record with ministers and college administrators.

Those are the links SkyJems has chosen to build its reputation on.

Citations and external verification

• GIA Alumni Association — of which David is an active member (Ontario chapter).
• George Brown College — David's undergraduate institution and the site of the Skyjems Design Competition.
• Canadian Jewellers Association — the professional body that nominated David for the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award.
• Compagnie Financière Richemont SA — the luxury group that hired a former SkyJems staff member.
• SkyJems reviews page — links to eBay, GemRockAuctions, Google, and 1stDibs feedback records.

Last updated: 2026-04-19. Author: David Saad.