How Rod Drury turned Xero into Global Giant

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For Drury, the key to success at Xero has been largely about two main factors—a strong, enthusiastic vision, and a skilled, diverse team. A self-described software nerd, Drury locked himself in his office xero founder at home for a few weeks and wrote an early online relational bit of accounting software. I was responsible for hiring many dozens of people around the world–across design, engineering and marketing.

Full Transcript of Podcast with Rod Drury

Will was appointed country manager, Australia in 2022 following other leadership roles at Xero including three years as country manager for Canada. As country manager, he is responsible for supporting the small business economy in Australia and for Xero’s relationships with the Australian government, financial institutions, and enterprise. Will joined Xero in 2015 working in the Australian commercial finance team, before being appointed finance director in the US and assisting with the launch of Xero in Canada. Prior to joining Xero, he held commercial finance roles at Lion and Woolworths. He has a Bachelor of Business from the University of Technology, Sydney. In July 2006 Drury founded Xero, a publicly listed software as a service accounting-software company, and served as its CEO.

At the Deloitte Top 200 Awards in 2017, Rod was named Visionary Leader of the Year. He was named Ernst & Young New Zealand Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013, and is a member of the New Zealand Hi-Tech Hall of Fame. In July 2011, the company acquired Australian online payroll https://xero-accounting.net/ provider Paycycle for a mixture of cash and shares totaling $1.9 million . The acquisition allowed Xero to integrate payroll into their Australian product offering. It acquired Spotlight Workpapers in July 2012 for a mixture of cash and shares totaling $800,000.

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That ability has helped him fundraise and grow the company, but also to lead by example. Xero would develop into a slick, cloud-based accounting program that automatically draws in bank and credit account information, among many other streamlined services that take work off of small business owners’ plates. Faye is responsible for expanding Xero’s business in Canada. She has over 15 years’ experience growing businesses from the ground up across a range of industries, including consumer packaged goods and disruptive technology. Prior to joining Xero in 2020, Faye spent five years at Uber where she helped launch Uber Eats globally and Uber Freight across Canada. Drury made his initial fortune through Glazier Systems, a New Zealand software development and consulting company, which was sold in 1999. He subsequently established Context Connect and an email technology company called Aftermail.

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Our customers tell us once they start working with Atomic they can increase customer engagement literally overnight,” he said. Atomic’s low-code platform allows enterprise apps to find the communications channel that suits customers best, making it easier for them to interact, transact and communicate with a business. Third thing is, you really gotta build your networks, and I always think about that as more paying it forward. No interest in it because I’m on an airplane so much anyway. So, I think, you know, when you’re doing an International business from New Zealand you do have, you know, quite a bit of time away from the family.

Drury attended Napier Boys’ High School, which is where he says he developed an interest in computer programming, before going on to study commerce and administration at Victoria University of Wellington. After university, he worked at the accounting firm Arthur Young, which became Ernst & Young in 1989. But the short form is that taking off my shoes did lead to the elimination of my injuries. But that wasn’t practical — there are places you can’t get into when you have no shoes, and some surfaces that are not amenable to being barefoot. Mr Drury, who, like Atlassian co-CEOs Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, intends to become more involved in supporting the transition to renewable energy, said there was still a lot money to deploy in quality businesses.

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In August 2018, Xero acquired Hubdoc, a data capture solution. Xero paid the acquisition price for Hubdoc in two stages, initially US$60 million consisting of 35% cash and 65% in Xero equity. The second tranche of US$10 million in equity was promised to the Hubdoc’s shareholders in 18 months following the acquisition, subject to operational targets and conditions. Xero was founded in Wellington during 2006 by Rod Drury and Hamish Edwards. Xero Limited’s headquarters are still located in Wellington. A fully digitized process to process and record all incoming invoices in Xero.

Anna leads Xero’s product teams, spearheading product management, development, design, and product marketing to bring more exciting Xero features to partners and small businesses. Anna has a wealth of experience in online financial services and operations. Before joining Xero as managing director for New Zealand in 2016, Anna led internet banking at ASB and the digital first strategy at Spark. Anna has a bachelor’s degree and a postgraduate diploma in commerce from the University of Auckland.

He would go on to start two other companies, building up his business knowhow. Colin Timmis is the country manager for South Africa, leading business operations and growth across the country for the last three years. 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.