New Constellation Software president to stick with predecessor’s playbook

Constellation Software Inc. might have a new leader, but he’s sticking with an old strategy.

Less than a week after being named president, Mark Miller said Wednesday that he’s keen to keep the Toronto tech firm on the path his predecessor laid out.

That path includes prioritizing capital deployment and building a succession plan around a management team that can think long-term.

Both were important to Mark Leonard, who was president of the company until last week, when he resigned for health reasons and appointed Miller, then chief operating officer, to replace him.

In his first call with investors Wednesday, Miller was peppered with questions about what kind of stamp he’d put on the business.

“We’ll just continue to focus on the same things that we always have here at Constellation,” Miller replied.

He maintained it had been “business as usual” since the surprise executive shakeup last week handed him Constellation’s top job.

His rise to the top comes 30 years after Leonard founded Constellation and built it into a decentralized tech firm with subsidiaries that pump out software for a wide-array of industries including agriculture, real estate, retail, energy and health care. 

Miller sold a company he co-founded to one of those subsidiaries, Volaris Group, in 1995, the same year Constellation was founded. He later became the CEO and executive chairman of Volaris. 

The strategy of running separate portfolios, and Leonard’s fixation on long-term shareholder wealth, made Constellation a longtime Toronto Stock Exchange star.

However, the company’s share price recently started to slide from a May high of $5,300 as investors worried artificial intelligence’s increasing accessibility and accuracy would boost competition.

Leonard had maintained as recently as last week that it was proving difficult to determine whether AI is causing “a renaissance or a recession” in programming but that Constellation was prepared for either. 

Miller said Wednesday that he sees AI as expediting Constellation’s goal of developing additional products customers need to run their businesses.

“I think with AI, there’s an opportunity to maybe do it faster, quicker,” he said.

He shot down any suggestion that he may turn to a share buyback to improve the market’s outlook on his company. Companies often carry out share buybacks in hopes of increasing their stock price by reducing the number of shares available.

“We’ve never been a fan of doing buybacks at Constellation,” Miller said.

Miller’s remarks made David Kwan, a TD Cowen analyst, feel “confident” in the new leader’s ability to build on Leonard’s track record.

In an email to investors, he said Miller’s “business as usual” tact “should help reassure investors.”

Richard Tse, a National Bank of Canada analyst, agreed Miller is “extremely capable” for his new role.

However, because Tse saw Leonard as the driver of Constellation’s premium value, the analyst said in a note to investors, “we think the market will need to see continued execution before re-rewarding the stock with that historical premium.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 1, 2025.

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