Dax Dasilva is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

tech entrepreneur, author and philanthropist. Dasilva founded the

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...

company Lightspeed in 2005, which went public in 2019 at a valuation of $1.7 billion. He was CEO of Lightspeed for 16 years, until stepping down in February 2022. Dasilva was reappointed CEO in 2024. Dasilva is the author of the 2019 book ''Age of Union'' about leadership, culture, spirituality, and nature. He is also the founder of two nonprofit organizations; the arts and culture organization Never Apart, and Age of Union Alliance, which funds conservation projects around the world.

Early life and education

Dasilva was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia to parents who had fled the regime of

Idi Amin Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 30 May 192816 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 until Uganda–Tanzania War, his overthrow in 1979. He ruled as a Military dictatorship, ...

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

refugees A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

in 1972. Dasilva became interested in computer programming at age twelve, and learned to build program interfaces on an

Apple Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

given to him by his father. At age thirteen, Dasilva began apprenticing for a

software developer Software development is the process of designing and Implementation, implementing a software solution to Computer user satisfaction, satisfy a User (computing), user. The process is more encompassing than Computer programming, programming, wri ...

. He attended the University of British Columbia, where he studied

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

before changing to

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

and

religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

Career

In 2005, Dasilva founded Lightspeed, a Montreal-based e-commerce company. Dasilva conceived of Lightspeed to assist small independent businesses competing against larger companies. In 2015, when the company had 500 employees, Dasilva moved its headquarters from a warehouse in Montreal’s Mile-Ex neighborhood, to

Place Viger Place Viger was both a grand hotel and railway station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, constructed in 1898 and named after Jacques Viger, the first Mayor of the city. Although combined stations and hotels were common in the United Kingdom in the la ...

. Dasilva took Lightspeed public on the

Toronto Stock Exchange The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; ) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the List of stock exchanges, 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in th ...

in March 2019, described by the ''Financial Post'' as the “most successful initial public offering by a Canadian technology company in almost a decade”. He was one of few openly gay leaders of a major Canadian company. In February 2022, Dasilva moved to the role of executive chairman of the board from CEO in order to concentrate on environmental and equality projects for the company. He returned to the position of CEO at Lightspeed in February 2024. Dasilva won an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

as an executive producer on the 2022 documentary ''

Wildcat The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') and the African wildcat (''F. lybica''). The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, while th ...

''.

Author

Dasilva authored a book titled ''Age of Union: Igniting the changemaker'' that was published in 2019. The book, which is partly a memoir, deals with change, leadership, culture, spirituality, and nature.

Community involvement

In 1993, Dasilva participated in the Clayoquot “War in the Woods” protests in Vancouver to oppose

old growth forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Natio ...

logging and

clearcutting Clearcutting, clearfelling or clearcut logging is a forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Along with Shelterwood cutting, shelterwood and Seed tree, seed tree harvests, it is used by foresters t ...

. Following the movement of Lightspeed’s company headquarters in 2015, Dasilva converted the Mile-Ex warehouse that had previously been its headquarters into a nonprofit cultural and arts space called “Never Apart.” In 2021, Dasilva donated $40 million to found the non-profit “Age of Union”, an organization that focuses on global conservation and climate change efforts, with projects in Canada,

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, and Congo. Dasilva’s Age of Union also funds efforts to protect international marine biodiversity. In 2023, Dasilva partnered with

Jane Goodall Dame Jane Morris Goodall (; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall; 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English zoologist, Primatology, primatologist and Anthropology, anthropologist. She is considered the world's foremo ...

and indigenous Amazonian leaders to start a chapter of Goodall’s youth conservationist program

Roots & Shoots Roots & Shoots was founded by Jane Goodall, DBE in 1991, to bring together youth from preschool to university age to work on environmental, conservation, and humanitarian issues. The organization has local chapters in over 140 countries with over ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Personal life

Dasilva came out as gay at age fourteen, and has credited the assistance he received at the time from LGBTQ support centers in Vancouver for helping to frame his philanthropic aims. He was an ambassador for Montreal Pride in 2015.

References

Canadian chief executives {{DEFAULTSORT:Dasilva, Dax Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Canadian LGBTQ businesspeople Businesspeople from Vancouver 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people