A bit of news from us today.
Xero Limited (XRO) has bolstered its Board and US management team with the appointment of a new Board Chairman, adding a further US based Director, and establishing a new role of CEO, North America following its $US150 million capital raise in October 2013.
Chris Liddell takes on the role as Board Chairman, Bill Veghte has been appointed as a Director, and Peter Karpas will lead the US team as CEO, North America.
Xero CEO and Founder Rod Drury says, “As you would expect from a fast expanding software company, our strategy is to increase US representation on our Board. These three high calibre appointments are all significant additions to our American-based leadership team and position us strongly in the US and globally. Adding their combined experience and capabilities will help us become the global leader in small business financial software.”
Chris Liddell as Chairman of the Board of Xero Limited
New York based Chris Liddell has been appointed as independent Chairman of the Board of Xero Limited, replacing Sam Knowles who has resigned as Director and Chairman of Xero Limited effective today.
Liddell most recently worked with General Motors where he held the Vice Chairman and CFO roles since joining the organisation in January 2010. He led the company’s global finance operations and its US$23 billion IPO in November 2010.
Prior to General Motors, Liddell held the Senior Vice President and CFO roles at Microsoft between 2005 to 2009, served as CFO of International Paper from 2003 – 2005 and held the CFO role at Carter Holt Harvey from 1995 to 1998 before becoming CEO in 1999.
Departing Chairman of the board Sam Knowles sees Xero’s move to a US-based Chairman as the next logical move for Xero’s transition to a global business.
Xero CEO Rod Drury says, “Sam has helped guide us through a period of rapid global expansion to over 600 people operating across four countries. His experience ensured we put in place the right foundations, systems and processes that enabled us to scale, while retaining our nimbleness and culture. We thank him for his enormous contribution and leadership.”
Bill Veghte appointed Director, based in the US
Based in San Francisco, Bill Veghte has been appointed as an independent nonexecutive Director of Xero Limited. Bill runs HP’s Enterprise Group where he is Executive Vice President and General Manager. In his role, he is responsible for the development and delivery of IT infrastructure solutions and the direction, management, and delivery of HP’s cloud efforts.
HP’s Enterprise Group is a US$28 billion annual revenue business that includes server, storage, networking, technology services, and cloud solutions.
Prior to HP, Veghte spent nearly 20 years at Microsoft where he held roles such as Corporate Vice President for Windows Server, then Corporate Vice President, North America before acting in the role of Senior Vice President until May 2010.
Peter Karpas appointed to new role of CEO, North America
Peter Karpas will assume the new role of CEO, North America. Peter joins Xero from PayPal where he recently held the position of Vice President and General Manager, North America for Small & Medium Business. Karpas has also held a number of senior roles at Intuit, including Chief Marketing and Product Management Officer and Senior Vice President.
Xero CEO Rod Drury comments “We are thrilled to have Peter join our team and lead our US business. His proven leadership, comprehensive familiarity with the B2B market in North America in both accounting and payments will help our drive for growth in the USA where there are over 29 million small businesses.”
Peter’s appointment will be effective as of 24 February, 2014.
Great appointments Rod! As an investor I’m thrilled to see the quality of the men and women you’ve been ablre to recruit to Xero over the last two years.
Rod is getting well positioned for US growth. Glad to be a part of it!
ditto Bill, fabulous seeing the growth and so exciting for all the shareholders – welcome to the family Chris, Bill and Peter
Congratulations on your new roles Chris Liddell, Bill Veghte and Peter Karpas – maybe we will see you at Xerocon Sydney?
Peter I don’t envy you navigating the mass of accounting bodies in North America!!
Fark, that’s some awesome experience coming onboard including ex-Intuit, Yes! Typical Kiwi though when you start out with “A bit of news today”, haha.
Awesome. Another few ticks for a NASDAQ listing. You should ask the Pope if he’s keen for a role too.
Nice move guys. Does this mean our lovely Jamie is no longer running Xero?
@James, Jamie has done a great job as our founding US leader and will work closely with Peter. Peter will run North America with Jamie continuing to drive the accountants channel as part of our US leadership team.
Impressive resume.
My clients absolutely love Xero, hopefully it can go from strength to strength.
Wow! Congratulations to all of the Xero team for the amazing new additions! Looking forward to continued growth of the Xero platform.
As a new shareholder, I am very excited to be well-informed about the new developments ie. Sales, Product innovation, Global growth and etc. Keep up the great work. Thank you.
What a great Management Team in the USA! I am very positive and confident that XERO will be able to increase its market share in the USA. I am getting more excited every day. XERO is determined to grow each day.
Wow! Is this for real? All Ordinaries down but XRO is up. $42.20
I wanted to buy more was it was over my limit. I had been a shareholder of their companies but I have not seen like this. Who hoo… Getting soo excited.
Great Product/Service + Great Management Team + Great Staff + Great Business Plan + Great Marketing Plan+ Great Strategic Plan+ etc = Highly Successful Company now and in the future…God Bless.
Great software company with great culture. I am inspired by their approach. Proud to have “Great Product-Xero Accounting” backed by great company to recommend to my clients in Middle East………Have a winning future.