Why did Kadeen Mairs suddenly resign as CEO of Dolla Financial, the company he founded and took to IPO last year? 

So you guys have been on me about this! So many tags and DMs asking me to explain so here you go! 

Mairs’ resignation is definitely one of the most unexpected plot twists in local business news. 

It feels like it’s coming out of nowhere… If you compare it with the leadership changes at NCB, at least we’ve known about discontent with how the company is being managed for at least two years.  So a change at the top was not entirely unexpected. 

But Dolla has been having the complete opposite experience. 

The company broke records when it listed on the Junior Market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange last year. Its IPO was 10 times oversubscribed, receiving over $5 billion in subscriptions on a $500 million offer!

The IPO was the largest in the history of the Junior Market and since then, Dolla has been on a massive growth trajectory.

The company has more than doubled its loan book from $1 billion in June 2022 to over $2.5 billion in June 2023. Plus, according to their six-month results, profits have almost doubled to $227 million.

They’ve also opened a new location in Portmore, raised over $1.5 billion through a bond, and launched a whole subsidiary – Ultra Financier. 

In early July, Dolla also announced that they’d be looking to raise more capital to keep up with the growing demand from customers. Also in July, they announced that Supreme Ventures had taken a 15% stake in the company. 

And that in itself was a massive deal, because like I said Dolla is on an aggressive growth drive. With backing from a company like SVL, that growth is likely to accelerate.

Remember a few weeks ago, we talked about the fact that Dolla was seeking permission from the Bank of Jamaica to expand into St Lucia and Barbados. And SVL has strong connections in other Caribbean countries, plus they just launched in Ghana. So this partnership has the potential to be Dolla’s cash pot – pun intended.

So, with all of this great news and sky’s the limit potential, it was definitely shocking to see Kadeen Mairs, who founded the company and piloted it during this massive growth, just up and resign as CEO.

A statement from the company said he was going on “garden leave”, leading many to speculate that he was forced out or asked to resign.

Well, Mairs has since cleared the air. He issued a statement saying the decision to leave was entirely his. He said he’s leaving his role as CEO but will still be involved with the company.

He said he’s shifting his focus to his other company, Dequity Capital Management, a private equity company. He explained that he has a passion for investing in and supporting businesses and he pretty much wants to recreate the magic with another business.

Kadeen is basically living every entrepreneur’s dream. Start a company, build it up, train a great team, then exit the business by either listing on the stock exchange or selling to another company, make A LOT of money in the process, and then start all over again with another company. 

But Kadeen emphasised that he still plans on being involved with the Dolla. Dequity Capital is still the second largest shareholder in Dolla, with a 20% stake, and Kadeen will remain a director on the board. So, it’s not a bitter break-up.

In the meantime, deputy CEO Kenroy Kerr has been bumped up to interim CEO, while the final arrangements are made for Kadeen’s departure.

Though it may have taken us by surprise, what’s great about this story is that clearly, the Jamaica Stock Exchange is giving entrepreneurs a tremendous opportunity to build and grow companies, while giving them the option to exit and lend their talent to something else. 

And that’s the bottom line.