Meet the Xero Beautiful Business Fund judges

Meet our global judges

Our global judges will select one winner for each of the four categories, from the pool of regional winners across the globe.

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy

CEO, Xero

As CEO, Sukhinder leads the growth and performance of Xero globally. With more than 25 years in Silicon Valley as a CEO, digital leader and board member, she has experience building and scaling global companies including Google, Amazon, Yodlee, Joyus and StubHub.

James Bergin

EGM, Technology Research & Advocacy, Xero

James is responsible for exploring and understanding technology trends, and providing insight and advisory to senior leadership teams across Xero, as well as our customers and partners. His role entails keeping an eye on the future, and helping others understand how technology can unlock new opportunities and capabilities for people in small business, their advisors and communities around the world.

Mike Cohen

Global Head of Partnerships, Square

Mike is the Global Head of Partnerships at Square. In this role, he oversees the business development, partner management, and partner operations teams that are responsible for growing an ecosystem of partners that enable Square to reach and serve businesses around the world. Prior to Square, Mike held senior product and partnerships roles at Facebook, InMobi, Qualcomm and Nokia. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science from UC Berkeley. Mike lives with his family in the San Francisco East Bay area.

Kate Dundas

Executive Director, UN Global Compact Network Australia

Kate is the Executive Director of the UN Global Compact Network Australia (UNGCNA), which is the Australian local network of the United Nations Global Compact. As Executive Director, Kate leads a team of experts across the fields of business and human rights, environment and climate change, anti-bribery and corruption and sustainable development. Kate is an experienced and well-regarded executive leader with 20 years of experience across the public and private sectors in sustainability, strategic foresight, strategy and city planning. She holds degrees in industrial design, landscape architecture and urban design, is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership, Harvard Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership program and is an Executive MBA candidate. 

Melissa Laurie

Founder & Managing Director, Oysterly

Melissa is the founder of Oysterly, a leading social video agency based in Singapore that specializes in creating User-Generated Content (UGC). The agency's innovative work led to Oysterly being selected as a winner in the 2023 Xero Beautiful Business Fund. Melissa has also been recognized as a Woman to Watch in Asia and was shortlisted for the Women Leading Tech Awards by Atlassian.

Lara Brennan

Partner, Advisory & Outsourcing, Forvis Mazars

Lara leads the mid-market advisory and outsourcing business for Forvis Mazars in the UK and is the global relationship lead for Xero. She specializes in working with fast-growing businesses, helping to develop strategy and drive business performance. Lara has a passion for innovation and enjoys building technology-enabled solutions for clients.

Meet our judges for Canada

Our Canada judges will select one winner for each of the four categories, from the pool of entries from across Canada.

Ben Richmond

Managing Director, North America, Xero

Ben is responsible for driving Xero’s growth in the United States and Canada. In 2013, he joined Xero as New Zealand sales director where he led the business' national growth and spearheaded Xero's global agriculture strategy. Prior to joining Xero, Ben worked in a large regional accounting practice before joining New Zealand's largest telecommunications company in a senior accounting role. He was also one of the founding board members of the Spark Foundation. Ben is a chartered accountant and earned a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in accounting, finance and information systems from the University of Canterbury.

Tony McGregor, CPA

Partner, Freelandt Caldwell Reilly LLP

Tony is a partner at Freelandt Caldwell Reilly LLP, based out of Sudbury, Ontario. His experience with small to medium enterprises, First Nations and not-for-profits has taught him that the role of the accountant has to evolve to meet the ever evolving needs of organizations in this modern age.

Melissa Lenos

Founder, King Business Solutions Inc

Melissa is the founder of Canadian bookkeeping firm King Business Solutions Inc, a partner in KBS Accounting, and a long-time Xero partner, advocate and Xero ambassador. With 20 years of industry experience and 14 years owning a bookkeeping firm, Melissa has in-depth knowledge and experience in the small- and medium-sized business world in Canada. Melissa is the vice-chair for CPB Canada (Certified Professional Bookkeepers of Canada) which allows her to have her finger on the pulse of the bookkeeping industry in Canada. Apart from being a busy business owner, employer, and Xero ambassador, she enjoys speaking about anything bookkeeping at the CPB annual conference and any other chance she gets.

Jeff Blundell

Director of Communications, SciMar

Jeff leads the team shaping SciMar’s voice, including Inside the Breakthrough, Manitoba Moonshot, and all their social channels. SciMar was a winner in the 2023 Xero Beautiful Business Fund. When he isn’t writing and recording, Jeff is coaching youth baseball and competitively sailing.

Sid Bhattacharjee

Senior Product Designer, Xero

Sid is a senior product designer at Xero, where he has spent nearly three years creating beautiful tax products. Alongside his role at Xero, Sid offers his design expertise to independent and small business owners through freelance services, helping them bring their creative visions to life. Recently, Sid relocated to beautiful British Columbia after spending seven wonderful years in New Zealand. After completing an engineering degree, he discovered a passion for UX design that allowed him to connect with customers, deeply understand their problems, and transform them into useful digital solutions.