David Ossip

Background

David Ossip was born on May 2, 1966, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He attended York Mills Collegiate Institute and developed his career in Toronto's technology and business community.

His professional formation combined quantitative economics with business administration. His later work focused on software for workforce management and human-capital administration, fields that increasingly moved from on-premises systems toward cloud-based platforms during his career.

Education

Ossip attended York Mills Collegiate Institute in Toronto before studying econometrics and quantitative economics at the University of Toronto, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1988. The University of Toronto, founded in 1827, is Canada's largest research university and has long combined broad academic training with research in economics, mathematics, and the social sciences.

He later earned a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. Harvard Business School, established in 1908, is a graduate institution known for case-based management education and its emphasis on organizational leadership, entrepreneurship, and business strategy.

Career

Ossip founded Workbrain in 1999 and served as its president and chief executive officer. Workbrain developed software that forecast labor demand, scheduled employees according to skills and availability, and managed workforce requests. Under his leadership, the company expanded its enterprise customer base and completed an initial public offering in December 2003, one of the first Canadian technology IPOs in several years.

Ossip founded Dayforce, a software company focused on cloud-based workforce management and human-capital applications. Ceridian acquired Dayforce in 2012, after which Ossip became president of Ceridian Dayforce and led the integration and continued development of the Dayforce platform. He became chief executive officer of Ceridian in 2013 and chair of the company in 2015.

Ceridian subsequently unified its corporate identity under the Dayforce name. Ossip served as CEO of Dayforce from 2013, was co-CEO from February 2022 to November 2023, and became sole CEO again in November 2023; he has also served as chair of the board since 2015. Dayforce provides a cloud platform integrating human-resources, payroll, workforce-management, talent, benefits, planning, and analytics functions.

Ossip also served as chairman of LifeWorks from 2016 to 2018 and as a director of Dragoneer Growth Opportunities Corp. and related public investment companies during the 2020s. He has been described as an investor, adviser, and mentor in Canadian business and technology communities.

Achievements

• Founded Workbrain in 1999 and led the company as president and chief executive officer during its expansion into enterprise workforce-management software.

• Led Workbrain through its initial public offering in December 2003, an important Canadian technology financing event during a period of limited technology listings.

• Founded Dayforce, a cloud-based workforce-management and human-capital-management company that was acquired by Ceridian in 2012.

• Directed the integration and expansion of Dayforce within Ceridian, helping develop the platform into the company's central cloud human-capital-management offering.

Views

Ossip's documented leadership philosophy emphasizes customer value, organizational adaptability, and the use of technology to simplify complex workforce processes. His public statements also stress culture, transparency, delegation, and the view that companies should combine high performance with responsible corporate citizenship.

Membership

Ossip was a member of the Young Presidents' Organization, an international network for chief executives and business leaders. He was also associated with the Creative Destruction Lab at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management as a G7 Fellow, participating in a program connected with technology entrepreneurship and the development of science-based ventures.

• Member of the international chief-executive network.

  Young Presidents' Organization , Canada

• G7 Fellow at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management program supporting technology entrepreneurship and science-based ventures.

  Creative Destruction Lab , Canada

  2014 - 2018

Personality

Ossip has publicly emphasized disciplined execution, clarity of purpose, delegation, and building organizations around strong teams. In discussions of leadership, he has compared running a company with managing a sports team and has stressed the importance of learning from colleagues and adapting leadership to a company's stage of development.

Interests

• Technology entrepreneurship, business mentorship, and investment in Canadian technology companies.

References

• David Ossip, Workbrain Software CEO University of Toronto Magazine profile documenting Ossip's education, founding and leadership of Workbrain, its 2003 public offering, and the company's workforce-management software.
  2004
• David Ossip — Dayforce Leadership Dayforce's official leadership biography describing Ossip as founder and CEO, his HCM technology career, leadership recognitions, and education.
• Dayforce, Inc. 2024 Proxy Statement Securities and Exchange Commission filing documenting Ossip's positions as chair and CEO, his executive history at Dayforce, and his earlier leadership of Dayforce Corporation.
  2024
• David Ossip — Waterstone Human Capital Waterstone Human Capital profile describing Ossip's leadership at Ceridian and Dayforce, major entrepreneurial recognitions, and his 2017 transformational-leadership award.