Occupier Appoints New Chief Executive Officer

Occupier, the leading commercial lease management and accounting software platform, announced the appointment of David Axler as Chief Executive Officer. The announcement comes alongside strategic leadership moves that position the company for its next phase of growth, with co-founders Matt Giffune and Andrew Flint transitioning to Chief Product Officer and Chief Strategy Officer, respectively.

Occupier’s competitive advantage is rooted in a unique combination of founders with deep commercial real estate and lease accounting expertise, complemented by seasoned SaaS operators driving scalable growth.

Giffune and Flint spent over a decade as commercial real estate brokers at JLL in Boston and New York before joining VTS. At Occupier, they recognized a critical technology gap. While landlords had modern platforms, tenants managing their second-largest expense had no unified solution for lease administration and accounting compliance. They’ve spent seven years perfecting the solution.

“Matt and Andrew have built a platform that customers genuinely love – one rooted in deep industry knowledge that addresses critical customer needs,” said Shane Skiffington, Partner at Unbundled Capital, which led Occupier’s $16 million growth investment earlier this year. “David brings the operational excellence and scaling expertise that enable companies to evolve from strong customer traction to sustainable market leadership. As the de facto standard for modern lease management, Occupier is uniquely positioned to lead the next wave of innovation in the industry. With David’s leadership, we will continue to set the bar for innovation across the industry to deliver exceptional customer outcomes.”

Axler brings 15+ years of experience scaling product-led SaaS businesses in the SMB and mid-market segments. Most recently, as Chief Strategy and Operations Officer at Wave Financial, he led the team through a strategic shift from a single-product to a multi-product business model, accelerating growth and margin expansion. H&R Block acquired Wave for $405 million, one of the largest Canadian tech acquisitions at the time. His expertise spans product-led growth strategy, cross-functional team leadership, and building customer-centric go-to-market engines in complex, underserved markets.

“Real estate is the second-largest expense for most companies, yet it’s managed with spreadsheets and email,” said Axler . “I’ve seen this story before at Wave, markets dominated by spreadsheets and legacy tools are ready for disruption. Matt and Andrew lived this problem as brokers. They know what great looks like in commercial real estate. My job is to accelerate how we deliver that value to customers and ensure we’re building infrastructure that scales as the industry digitizes.”

“David’s deep understanding of both product strategy and go-to-market execution gives us tremendous confidence in where we’re headed,” said Flint . “Our customers can expect a platform that doesn’t just keep pace with the market, but defines where commercial real estate technology is going. We’re building the infrastructure that will power how companies manage real estate for the next decade.”

View full press release here.

Executive Search Partnership: Occupier