Dax Dasilva is a Canadian tech entrepreneur, author and philanthropist. ^{[1] [2]} Dasilva founded the e-commerce company Lightspeed in 2005, ^[3] which went public in 2019 at a valuation of $1.7 billion. ^[4] He was CEO of Lightspeed for 16 years, until stepping down in February 2022. ^{[5] [6]} Dasilva is the author of the 2019 book Age of Union about leadership, culture, spirituality, and nature. ^[7] He is also the founder of two nonprofit organizations; the arts and culture organization Never Apart, ^[2] and Age of Union Alliance, which funds conservation projects around the world. ^{[7] [8] [9]}

Early life and education

Dasilva was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia ^[9] to parents who had fled the regime of Idi Amin in Uganda as refugees in 1972. ^[4] Dasilva became interested in computer programming at age twelve, and learned to build program interfaces on an Apple Macintosh given to him by his father. ^[10] At age thirteen, Dasilva began apprenticing for a software developer. ^[11]

He attended the University of British Columbia, ^[12] where he studied computer science before changing to art history and religion. ^[9]

Career

In 2005, Dasilva founded Lightspeed, ^[3] a Montreal-based e-commerce company. ^[13] Dasilva conceived of Lightspeed to assist small independent businesses competing against larger companies. ^{[10] [14]}

In 2015, when the company had 500 employees, Dasilva moved its headquarters from a warehouse in Montreal’s Mile-Ex neighborhood, ^[2] to Place Viger. ^[10] Dasilva took Lightspeed public on the Toronto Stock Exchange ^[4] in March 2019, ^[1] described by the Financial Post as the “most successful initial public offering by a Canadian technology company in almost a decade”. ^[4] He was one of few openly gay leaders of a major Canadian company. ^[6] 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. ^[5]

Author

Dasilva authored a book titled Age of Union: Igniting the changemaker that was published in 2019. ^{[1] [15]} The book, which is partly a memoir, ^[4] deals with change, leadership, culture, spirituality, and nature. ^[7]

Community involvement

In 1993, Dasilva participated in the Clayoquot “War in the Woods” protests in Vancouver ^[8] to oppose old growth forest ^{[7] [8]} logging ^[9] and clearcutting. ^[4]

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 ^[7] called “Never Apart.” ^[2] In 2021, Dasilva donated $40 million ^[8] to found the non-profit “Age of Union”, ^[7] an organization that focuses on global conservation and climate change efforts, ^[16] with projects in Canada, ^{[7] [17]} Peru, Indonesia, and Congo. ^[7] Dasilva’s Age of Union also funds efforts to protect international marine biodiversity. ^[9]

Personal life

Dasilva came out as gay at age fourteen, ^[2] and has credited the assistance he received at the time from LGBTQ support centers in Vancouver for helping to frame his philanthropic aims. ^[18] He was an ambassador for Montreal Pride in 2015. ^[3]

References