Chief talent officer Brittany Forsyth, chief legal officer Joe Frasca and chief technology officer Jean-Michel Lemieux are leaving the Ottawa-based firm. Forsyth joined 11 years ago; Lemieux and Frasca had spent about seven and six years at Shopify, respectively. (Ottawa Business Journal)

Talking point: CEO Tobi Lütke broke the news to employees of the executives’ departures in an email Wednesday. “Each one of them has their individual reasons but what was unanimous with all three was that this was the best for them and the best for Shopify,” he wrote. Their exits follow a year of rapid growth for Shopify, as the pandemic drove retailers and consumers online. The company reported US$2.9 billion in revenue in 2020. It hired more than 2,000 people that year, with plans to add at least that many this year in its engineering team alone. At the same time, Lütke has taken a more hands-on approach. When chief product officer Craig Miller departed in September 2020, Lütke assumed his position, rather than replacing him. Lemieux and Frasca did not say what they plan to do next. Forsyth tweeted she will be focusing on Backbone Angels, an angel network for women and non-binary entrepreneurs, “while looking to join some epic boards and overall find new opportunities to become the teacher & student.” Shopify’s share price dropped five per cent on Wednesday, though it’s still up more than 130 per cent from a year ago.