New Xero CEO’s passion for accounting began around the family dinner table, aged seven

Newly appointed Xero CEO Sukhinder Singh Cassidy will lead the cloud accounting software business through its next phase of growth, the tech company has announced.

Cassidy will replace Steve Vamos, retiring after almost five years at the helm, as Xero CEO in February 2023.

Previously, Cassidy was president, Asia-Pacific and Latin America at Google; president at StubHub; founder of the Boardlist, and the founder of Joyus, where she was CEO.

Since its formation in 2006, Xero has fast become a leader in cloud accounting across Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom for small businesses, with more than 3.5 million subscribers in 180 countries and 4500 staff.

In October 2022, Xero released its small business trends for 2023 report. The data showed that small businesses experience negative cash flow for about four months of the year and boom months in October, November and December typically gave way to a flat new year.

Cassidy confirmed she couldn’t wait to get started, writing on her Linkedin page:

“For those of you who know me, you’ll know that it was my father who seeded and fueled my passion for entrepreneurship from a young age. But what you may not know is that it all started with his ledger.

“Every year around March 1st, (beginning when I was 7 or 8), my father would gather our whole family around the dining room table, bring out all his checkbooks for the past year, and have us start recording every expense from our parents’ medical practice.

“As tax day grew near, the frenzied activity would accelerate — our army of family accountants working until the very last minute to figure out the year’s income, profits and taxes owed. By 12 or 13, I could do most of the tax return and by 18 I’d built an excel spreadsheet to speed up the system. But my view of entrepreneurship and small business building was built line by line with each ledger entry of my youth.

“So perhaps it’s fitting that my own professional journey comes full circle today. I’m excited to be joining Xero as its next CEO. Xero is one of the world’s largest online accounting platforms empowering SMBs and their advisors. I’m humbled by the opportunity to work with Xeros around the world, the current CEO Steve Vamos and the leadership team, the board, and investors to further enable small businesses everywhere with powerful financial data and insights.”

Outgoing CEO Steve Vamos detailed his plans to return to his previous portfolio on Thursday and congratulated Cassidy on her appointment.

“It is clear through the conversations we have had that we share similar views on the power of human leadership and the importance of fostering a vibrant and diverse culture. As an experienced global tech executive, she is very well placed to take over the reins and lead Xero through this next exciting phase,” he said.

Xero chair David Thodey has credited Vamos with leading Xero from 1.4 million to 3.5 million subscribers and from $484.4 million to $1.5 billion annualised monthly recurring revenue.