JD Saint-Martin says he will step down as president of Montréal-based Lightspeed Commerce at the end of its fiscal year.
“We’re deeply grateful for JD’s partnership and the discipline he instilled in our global operations.”
After six years with the e-commerce and point-of-sales tech firm, Saint-Martin will leave on March 31 “to focus on mentoring and investing in early-stage founders within the Canadian technology ecosystem,” the company said. In a LinkedIn post, Saint-Martin said he made the decision to leave and that there is “more to come soon.”
“There is a new generation of entrepreneurs [in Canada]: ambitious, global, and building for the long term,” Saint-Martin wrote. “I want to help accelerate that.”
Lightspeed announced the planned executive change, as well as the addition of Gabriel Benavides as chief revenue officer (CRO), exactly one week after its fiscal Q2 earnings report.
Saint-Martin joined Lightspeed in 2019 after the company bought Chronogolf, a software company he co-founded in 2013. In 2020, he became Lightspeed’s senior vice-president of global sales, then CRO in 2021, and president in 2022, which Lightspeed said was an expansion of the CRO role.
Saint-Martin is sticking around until the end of the company’s fiscal year to “ensure a smooth transition” as Benavides steps into the CRO role, the company said. Lightspeed told BetaKit it is not looking for Saint-Martin’s replacement at this time.
Benavides brings experience as the CRO at market intelligence platforms Contentsquare and Medallia. Lightspeed claims Benavides helped Medallia increase annual revenue by a factor of ten, ultimately achieving a $6 billion market valuation.
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“JD’s leadership built the foundation for Lightspeed’s transformation; Gabriel’s appointment accelerates that trajectory,” Lightspeed CEO Dax Dasilva said in a statement. “We’re deeply grateful for JD’s partnership and the discipline he instilled in our global operations.”
Founded in 2005, Lightspeed sells point-of-sale and commerce software and hardware to restaurants, retailers, and hospitality providers. Lightspeed upgraded its outlook for the rest of the fiscal year after beating internal revenue forecasts in its Q2 earnings report last week. In September, Lightspeed added Google Android head Sameer Samat and seasoned FinTech CEO Odilon Almeida to its board of directors as the company executes on its strategic transformation plan.
Lightspeed is dual-listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘LSPD.’ The firm achieved its goals of $1 billion in revenue this year, but its share price has struggled to regain its 2021 high. Its market capitalization is around $2.5 billion CAD.
Feature image courtesy JD Saint-Martin via LinkedIn.