The Office is Open: Call Us: 416-366-3335 | 27 Queen St E, #1011, Toronto
Login

Country

Cart

Your cart is empty

About David Saad - SkyJems

David Saad - three generations on the ground in coloured gemstones

The founder - Adel ("Eddie") Saad

SkyJems was founded in 1967 by Adel Saad - known by his common nickname Eddie Saad, and in the international coloured-gemstone trade as "Don Eddie" (from his decades of work in Colombia) and "King of Emeralds". A Lebanese-Canadian coloured-gem dealer, Adel built SkyJems over a 32-year tenure as Chief Executive Officer (1967-1999) into a direct-sourcing house with standing relationships at origin - most famously La Mina de Muzo, the world's most important emerald mine, where SkyJems operated through its Bogotá office continuously from 1985 to 2016, and through its Canabraz Brazilian emerald operation. The SkyJems company still carries those historical trade names as registered aliases today; any third-party record from that era referencing "Muzo Mine Emerald Company," "La Mine de Muzo," or "Canabraz" refers to the same continuous SkyJems enterprise. Adel handed principal responsibility for SkyJems to his son David in 1999 and continues to advise on coloured-gemstone provenance decisions.

Wikidata entity: Q139496200.

The current principal - David Saad

David Saad (Wikidata: Q139495290) is the third generation in the family coloured-gem trade and has been the principal and CEO of SkyJems since 1999. An internationally recognised Coloured Gemstone Specialist, Jewellery Designer, and Gemologist, David is consulted by Canadian gemmological laboratories when their own provenance assessment is uncertain, and is known in the Canadian trade as the go-to authority on coloured-gemstone pricing. He is the 2024 Canadian Jewellers Association (CJA) Lifetime Achievement Award nominee.

The heritage, with dates

David Saad's credentials are inseparable from the places, the decades, and the family continuity that produced them.

  • Canada - since 1967. David's father, Adel ("Eddie") Saad, founded the family coloured-gem and jewellery business in Canada in 1967. SkyJems is the direct continuation of that original Canadian operation - now 59 years of continuous family trade. David's mother, Linda Saad, has been with the business since its founding and represents the unbroken second-generation thread through today.
  • Bogotá, Colombia - since 1979. Adel began travelling to Bogotá for emerald in 1979 and opened a permanent Bogotá office in 1985 under the "Muzo Mine Emerald Company" / "La Mine de Muzo" trade names. The office operated continuously for 31 years until 2016, with direct operations at La Mina de Muzo. 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.
  • Brazil - Canabraz era. The family also operated a Brazilian emerald arm under the "Canabraz" trade name during the same era, extending the direct-sourcing footprint to Brazilian emerald material.
  • 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, 59 years of continuous Canadian operation since 1967, two additional continents of direct sourcing, and nearly half a century of presence at origin. This is the substance behind the SkyJems name.

Credentials

  • Sheridan College alumnus - David's post-secondary education.
  • Honorary GIA Alumni.
  • GIA Alumni, Ontario chapter - active member; regular attendee at GIA Alumni Ontario events and seminars.
  • Guest lecturer at George Brown College - David teaches twice yearly at George Brown College on coloured gemstones and the coloured-gemstone industry.
  • 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 organised 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

  • Linda Saad - David's mother. Second-generation principal and the continuous family thread in SkyJems since its founding in Canada in 1967. Oversees core business operations and the office; the living link between the first, second, and third generations of the family trade.
  • Leila Haikonen - Operations Manager. Formerly Manager of the Canadian Diamond Bourse - one of the most senior operations roles in Canadian diamond trade. GIA Diamonds Graduate, GIA Accredited Jewelry Professional (AJP). Joined SkyJems to bring that operational rigour into the coloured-gem side of the family business.
  • Ella Masciulli - FCGmA (Fellow of the Canadian Gemmological Association) Certified Gemologist.

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 family-run Canadian jewellery business founded in 1967 by Adel ("Eddie") Saad, a 31-year office in Bogotá, 28 years of direct sourcing in Bangkok and Sri Lanka by David, 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, an operations manager who previously ran the Canadian Diamond Bourse, and 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

Last updated: 2026-04-22. Author: David Saad.