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 specialises 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 recognised 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 specialises 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 UK judges

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

Kate Hayward

Country Manager, UK

Kate leads Xero's business operations in the UK, playing an active role as an advocate for the customer community. She joined Xero in 2019 and has held key leadership roles in Xero’s strategy and operations teams, globally and in the UK. Prior to Xero, Kate held strategy roles at Deloitte Australia and KPMG. She holds a Bachelor of Science (Biology) from the University of South Hampton and trained and qualified with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS).

Vangelis Kyriazis

Co-founder and CEO, Syft Analytics

Vangelis is the co-founder and CEO of Syft Analytics, an acclaimed financial reporting and analytics platform. He transitioned from running an accounting practice to leading a global software business. Syft transforms financial reporting for over 100,000 SMEs by simplifying complex data into actionable insights.

Ravi Shah

Partner, Vinod Shah & Co

As partner in his family accountancy practice, Vinod Shah & Co, Ravi champions Xero cloud accounting software to drive client growth, efficiency and innovation. He’s committed to digital transformation and adding value to businesses, and leads the way to a paperless office. An advocate for mentorship and community engagement, he is honoured to be a judge for the 2024 Xero Beautiful Business Fund.

Michelle Ovens CBE

Founder, Small Business Britain

Michelle is the founder of Small Business Britain, the leading champion of the UK’s 5.5 million small businesses, which supports business owners through skills programmes, networking, events, and insight reports, and showcases and campaigns for diversity and inclusion in entrepreneurship.

Nabeel Nauzer

Commercial Operations Analyst, Xero

Nabeel is part of Xero’s Strategy & Operations team, supporting regional leadership on various performance-based and tactical initiatives to drive Xero’s growth within the UK. Passionate about entrepreneurship and innovation, Nabeel will draw on this experience as a judge for the Xero Beautiful Business Fund.