Pineapple Financial Inc.: appoints new CFO; forms special committee

What happened

• The filing reports that on Oct 15, 2026 Usman Maher was appointed chief financial officer and chief strategy officer, effective Oct 15, 2026. Syed Sarfraz Habib was reassigned to chief accounting officer and controller.
• The filing reports that the board formed a special committee on Oct 9, 2026 to oversee a proposed multi-phase strategic repositioning under the "Pentiv" brand and related transactions, and that the company announced a planned NYSE ticker change from "PAPL" to "PTIV", expected to begin trading on or about Oct 26, 2026.

Key details

• Employment terms: the company and Mr. Maher entered an executive employment agreement dated Oct 9, 2026. Mr. Maher’s annual base salary is $250,000, accruing from Oct 1, 2026, with participation in the management incentive plan and a target annual bonus of 100% of base salary (payout range 50% to 150% of base salary). Equity awards are subject to board and committee approval.
• Mr. Maher is age 40, has been a CFA charterholder since 2011, holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and served at SoFi Technologies from 2022 to 2026 and Lone Star Funds from 2016 to 2020.
• Principal officer designations: Mr. Habib will remain the company’s principal financial officer and principal accounting officer for SEC purposes through the filing of the Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Aug 31, 2026; upon that filing Mr. Maher will assume the principal financial officer designation and Mr. Habib will continue as principal accounting officer.
• Special committee and transactions: the special committee, formed because of related-party aspects of the proposal, consists of independent directors Anthony Georgiades (chair), Drew Green, Paul Baron and Tasis Giannoukakis. The Proposed Transactions are described in a non-binding term sheet dated Sep 16, 2026 and may include a corporate renaming, separation of the technology platform from the mortgage brokerage, potential licensing, and a possible future spin-off of the brokerage business.

Why it may matter

• Item 5.02 (departure of directors or certain officers; election of directors) covers the reported CFO appointment, the reassignment of the prior CFO, and the principal financial/principal accounting officer designations.
• Item 8.01 (other events) covers the formation of the special committee and the description of the proposed "Pentiv" strategic repositioning, and Item 7.01 (regulation FD disclosure) covers the press release and investor presentation made available on Oct 15, 2026.
• The filing does not show why the insider traded or why the company acted.