Xero
Leadership History
2 leaders · 2006 to present
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy is the CEO of Xero, in the role since 2023. The first chief executive was Rod Drury, from 2006.
| Name | Role | From | To | Years in role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sukhinder Singh Cassidy | Chief Executive Officer | 2023 | Present | 3 |
| Rod Drury | Co-Founder & Former Chief Executive Officer (2006-2018) | 2006 | 2018 | 12 |
Xero sells monthly software subscriptions to small businesses, sole traders, and accounting and bookkeeping firms. The core product covers bank reconciliation, invoicing, bills, payroll in several markets and financial reporting, and plans are priced in tiers by market. Most customers reach Xero through accountants and bookkeepers, who adopt it for their practice and move clients onto it. A large app marketplace of third-party integrations extends the core ledger. Payments are a growing second revenue line. Since the Melio acquisition in October 2025, Xero earns transaction revenue from US bill pay and receivables, and Melio contributed ~$193 million (NZ$332 million) in FY26. That helped lift average revenue per customer 23% to NZ$55.44.
Chief Executive Officer
2023 – Present
3 years (current)
Cut costs and roles soon after joining in 2023, refocused the company on accounting, payments and payroll in its three main markets, and led the US$2.5 billion Melio acquisition.
Under her leadership revenue grew from ~$812 million (NZ$1.40 billion) in FY23 to ~$1.59 billion (NZ$2.75 billion) in FY26, and Xero moved from a net loss to a net profit.
Co-Founder & Former Chief Executive Officer (2006-2018)
2006 – 2018
12 years
Drury executed the absolutely massive, highly aggressive global expansion strategy, fiercely attacking Intuit's monopoly by pushing Xero heavily into the UK and Australia, where it rapidly achieved total market dominance.
As Co-Founder and legendary CEO, he was the absolute visionary who completely revolutionized the deeply boring accounting software industry by making the software beautiful, cloud-native, and highly integrated with banking APIs.
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy is the Chief Executive Officer of Xero, having assumed executive leadership on February 1, 2023.
She is a seasoned Silicon Valley executive with over 25 years of experience, having served as President of Asia-Pacific and Latin America at Google, CEO of StubHub, founder of theBoardlist, and a board director at TripAdvisor and Urban Outfitters.
Rod Drury led Xero for 12 years from inception, inventing the cloud accounting category, leading its public listings, and expanding the company from a Wellington apartment into an international tech titan.
Steve Vamos, former Managing Director of Microsoft Australia and Apple Asia-Pacific, served as CEO from 2018 to 2023, steering Xero past 3 million subscribers and scaling global operations.
She executed comprehensive operational restructuring in 2023, reducing workforce overhead by 15%, re-allocating capital toward core product innovation and AI, and driving record free cash flow generation.
Xero is headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand, while maintaining major regional technology and customer hubs in Melbourne, Sydney, London, Milton Keynes, Denver, and Toronto.
Her 'Win the 3x3' strategic roadmap focuses on dominating cloud accounting, payroll, and payments across its three core regions (ANZ, UK, and North America) while embedding autonomous generative AI.
After stepping down as CEO in 2018, Rod Drury served as a non-executive director before retiring from the board, remaining an active tech angel investor and philanthropist in New Zealand.
Compare executive leadership tenures and strategic transitions
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