Meet the Xero Board, executive and regional leaders
Meet Xero's Board, executive and regional leadership teams. Find out about their roles, background and experience.
Board of directors
David Thodey, AO
CHAIR OF THE BOARD
Independent director since June 2019 and Chair since February 2020
Nominations and Governance Committee (Chair)
Audit and Risk Management Committee
David is a business leader focused on innovation and technology, with more than 30 years’ experience creating brand and shareholder value. He is active in public policy, innovation and corporate governance.
David is chair of Ramsay Health Care (a global hospital group), co-chair of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and the Climate Leaders Coalition, and Chancellor at the University of Sydney.
He was CEO of IBM Australia and New Zealand (1999-2001) and Telstra (2009-2015), and has wide experience as a board director including as a past director of Vodafone Group, CSIRO, CSL, and Telstra.
David has a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and English from Victoria University of Wellington, and completed the post-graduate General Management Program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He received an honorary Doctorate in Science from Deakin University in 2016, an honorary Doctorate in Technology from University of Technology in 2018, an honorary Doctorate in Business from University of Sydney in 2022 and was recognized for his services to business and ethical business leadership with an Order of Australia (AO) in 2017.
Steven Aldrich
NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Independent director since October 2020
Audit and Risk Management Committee
Steven is an entrepreneur and professional director with more than 25 years’ experience in creating and delivering products within the technology and accounting software industries. Steven is currently a non-executive director of Semrush, an online visibility management SaaS platform, and a previous non-executive director of Avantax.
Steven has held a range of senior executive roles, including at GoDaddy, the world’s largest services platform for entrepreneurs, where most recently he was chief product officer. Prior to this, Steven was the CEO of Outright, an online bookkeeping service, which was acquired by GoDaddy. Steven has also held various senior management roles at Intuit, including vice president of strategy and innovation for the small business division. Steven holds a Bachelor of Arts in Physics from the University of North Carolina and a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University.
Mark Cross
NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Independent director since April 2020
Audit and Risk Management Committee (Chair)
People and Remuneration Committee
Mark is an experienced professional director with more than 20 years of international experience in corporate finance and investment banking. He is currently the chair of Chorus, a director of Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, a board member of the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) New Zealand and chair of the ACC Investment Committee. His recent previous directorships include Milford Asset Management (chair) and Z Energy.
Mark was at Deutsche Bank for 10 years, initially based in Sydney in mergers and acquisitions, then in London as a managing director and co-head of a European M&A industry group. Mark holds a Bachelor of Business Studies (Accounting & Finance) from Massey University New Zealand, is a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, a chartered fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Directors, and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Anjali Joshi
NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Independent director since July 2023
People and Remuneration Committee
Anjali is an experienced technology and product leader and professional director with more than 30 years’ experience in engineering and product management. She is currently a director of LocoNav and Persistent Systems, and was previously a director of Alteryx, Lattice Semiconductor, Iteris, Mobileiron, and McClatchy. Anjali is on the advisory board of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University and an advisor to Insight Partners in New York.
Anjali spent 13 years in senior product leadership at Google, during which time she was instrumental in building and scaling new products globally across internet, mobile and video platforms. Prior to joining Google, Anjali held engineering leadership roles at Covad Communications and program management roles at AT&T Bell Labs. Anjali received her Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, a Master of Computer Engineering from the State University of New York, and a Master of Engineering Management from Stanford University. She was awarded the Distinguished Alumna Award from the Indian Institute of Technology.
Brian McAndrews
NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Independent director since February 2022
People and Remuneration Committee
Nominations and Governance Committee
Brian is an experienced former executive and CEO, having driven growth and innovation for leading technology, SaaS and cloud-based companies, and a professional director. His experience includes leading Pandora Media, a streaming music provider in the US, and aQuantive, a digital marketing services and technology company that was acquired by Microsoft.
Brian is currently lead director of Frontdoor, the largest provider of home service plans in the United States, and is presiding director on the board of The New York Times. He is a director of The Wine Group and senior advisor to Spectrum Equity. He was previously a director of Chewy and Teladoc Health, and chairman of Grubhub.
Brian has been included in the National Association of Corporate Directors Directorship 100, which recognizes the most influential board members. He holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Economics from Harvard College and a Master of Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Dale Murray, CBE
NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Independent director since April 2018
Audit and Risk Management Committee
Dale is an experienced non-executive director and former technology entrepreneur and CEO. Dale is currently a non-executive director at the Cranemere Group, Jupiter Fund Management, and Lightspeed Commerce, and a board advisor to Accelerate:Her. She was formerly a non-executive director and trustee for the Peter Jones Foundation, a non-executive director at Sussex Place Ventures, LendInvest, and at the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (UK).
Dale co-founded and was CEO of mobile pioneer Omega Logic in 1999, which co-launched prepay top-ups in the UK, leading the growth of top-up transactions to £450m within five years. She then turned to investing and advising startups and won the British Angel Investor of the Year award in 2011. She holds a Master of Business Administration from the London Business School and served on the Business Taskforce on EU Redtape for the British Prime Minister in 2013. Dale was made Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 2013, for services to business.
Susan Peterson
NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Independent director since February 2017
People and Remuneration Committee (Chair)
Nominations and Governance Committee
Susan is an experienced non-executive director and business leader with a particular interest in helping companies to drive growth through technology, innovation and organizational culture. Susan is currently the chair of Vista Group and an independent director of Arvida Group and Mercury.
Susan is also a board member of Craig’s Investment Partners and was previously a member of the New Zealand Markets Disciplinary Tribunal. Susan is a past director of ASB Bank and Trustpower, and a past ministerial appointee to the National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women. Susan holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Otago.
Company secretary
Damien Coleman
CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER & COMPANY SECRETARY
Damien is a legal and governance professional and leader with more than 20 years’ experience advising senior management and boards. Prior to joining Xero, Damien was Company Secretary and Deputy Group General Counsel at Telstra. Damien holds a Bachelor of Laws with Honours and a Bachelor of Economics from the Australian National University. He is a fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Executive team
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
As CEO Sukhinder leads the growth and performance of Xero globally. With more than 25 years’ experience 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.
She currently serves on the board of publicly traded fintech, Upstart with previous experience serving on the boards of Ericsson, Trip Advisor, Urban Outfitters, Stitchfix and J.Crew. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Arts (Honors), Business Administration & Management from Western University, Ontario, Canada.
Kirsty Godfrey-Billy
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Kirsty leads Xero’s global financial team driving financial outcomes, actively managing the group’s financial performance, optimizing the business's balance sheet, and communicating the group’s strategic and financial priorities to stakeholders including investors. Kirsty is an FCA and FCPA with more than 25 years’ global experience in the finance and technology sectors across New Zealand and the UK at companies including PwC, BBC Technology, Jade and Siemens. Kirsty holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Management from Lincoln University.
Ashley Hansen Grech
CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER
Ashley leads Xero’s global go-to-market functions including sales operations, regional managing directors and leadership, customer experience, partnerships and revenue operations. She has more than 20 years' technology, fintech and payments experience. Before joining Xero in 2023, Ashley was Chief Operating Officer at Recharge Recharge Inc. Prior to that, she was Global Head of Sales at Square, Inc (now Block). Ashley is currently a director on the board of Spreedly, a payments orchestration platform. She holds both a Bachelor of Science in International Studies and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Diya Jolly
CHIEF PRODUCT & TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
Diya leads Xero’s product and technology teams driving product management, product design, engineering, security and data to further improve Xero’s global small business platform for partners and small businesses. Diya has market-leading global experience in designing, developing and launching consumer and business products in high growth mid sized companies, startups and Fortune 500 brands. Before joining Xero in 2023, Diya was Chief Product Officer at Okta where she led product innovation for both its workforce and customer identity business. Prior to that she was Vice President of Product Management at Google, where she was focused on driving adoption for some of the company’s leading products. Diya has a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering and Economics from the University of Michigan.
Nicole Reid
CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER
Nicole leads Xero’s people experience function globally. As an established human resources leader, she has more than 20 years’ experience in human resources strategy development and execution, delivering value-adding organizational people solutions and transformational change programs. Nicole has worked across the financial services, technology and telecommunications industries for companies including AMP and Microsoft.
Angad Soin
CHIEF BUSINESS OPERATIONS & STRATEGY OFFICER
Angad is responsible for leading the development and execution of Xero’s global strategy and driving operational excellence. He joined Xero in early 2021 and prior to that worked at Deloitte for 13 years in various roles, most recently as Partner, National Lead in the Strategy & Transformation Office. Angad has a Bachelor in Information Technology from the University of Technology Sydney.
Michael Strickman
CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
Michael is responsible for driving Xero’s direct customer and partner marketing activities, and aligning our brand, marketing, digital and communications teams globally. He is tasked with growing Xero’s reputation and deepening its connection and engagement with customers and our communities. Michael has more than 20 years’ global marketing experience. Before Xero he worked at Uber as Vice President, Performance Marketing and Growth, and led global demand generation at Tripadvisor as Vice President, Traffic Acquisition and Measurement. Before Tripadvisor, Michael was Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Choicestream, an online personalisation and programmatic advertising provider. Michael holds a Bachelor of Science, Applied Mathematics (Honors) from Brown University.
Executive leadership: Regional leaders
Alex von Schirmeister
MANAGING DIRECTOR, UK & EMERGING MARKETS
Alex is responsible for leading Xero’s operations across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He has more than 25 years’ of senior leadership experience, having led teams across Europe and Latin America in ecommerce, payments, telecommunications, FMCG and consultancy. Prior to Xero, Alex led the European operations for small business payments technology company SumUp, and before that held senior leadership positions at Electrocomponents and eBay, where he gained exposure to a large constituency of merchant sellers. Alex holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, International Business from Georgetown University, and a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD.
Kate Hayward
COUNTRY MANAGER, UK
Kate leads Xero's business operations in the UK, playing an active role as an advocate for our customer community. She joined Xero in 2019 and has held critical 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).
Ben Richmond
MANAGING DIRECTOR, NORTH AMERICA
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.
Bridget Snelling
COUNTRY MANAGER, NEW ZEALAND
Bridget is the country manager for New Zealand, responsible for overseeing the execution of New Zealand’s go-to-market strategy, revenue, market share, and advancing Xero’s brand as a leading small business platform. She has over ten years of experience across global financial services, technology, and media. Prior to Xero, Bridget held various strategic marketing and leadership positions at TVNZ, Orion Health and ANZ. Bridget holds a conjoint Bachelor of Arts and Law, with Honours in Media Law, from the University of Auckland.
Colin Timmis
COUNTRY MANAGER, SOUTH AFRICA
Colin Timmis is the country manager for South Africa, leading business operations and growth across the country for the last three years. He joined Xero in 2016 as head of accounting, South Africa. Colin has over 12 years of experience in the accounting profession and has expertise in cloud accounting software implementation, development and best practice. In 2011 he founded South Africa’s first ever cloud practice, Real Time Accounting, and later became the first Xero-certified advisor in South Africa. Colin has also worked at global accounting firm BDO and is a SAIPA certified accountant.
Koren Wines
REGIONAL DIRECTOR, ASIA
Koren was appointed regional director, Asia in 2022. She is responsible for driving Xero's growth in Asia, working closely with leading financial institutions and governments in the region to bring value to the small business and partner community. Koren joined Xero as senior partner marketing manager in 2017, establishing Xero’s global sales enablement function, and has since held other global leadership positions at Xero. Prior to joining Xero, she was chief operating officer at DCCS Australia. Koren holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences (Psychology) from Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne.