New Zealand based global accounting software company Xero has appointed chief data officer Tony Stewart as head of small business products to take over from Duncan Ritchie who is taking a sabbatical.
Stewart, who will take over the role in June, has led Xero’s focus on automation and data innovation for the past.
Xero chief executive Rob Drury said Stewart’s appointment would help further accelerate Xero’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning innovation in the product teams.
“He has been part of the Xero executive team for the last year and I’ve worked with Tony for over 20 years. His combined technical and accounting skills and experience building high-performance development teams make this a smooth transition.
{loadposition peter}“Our focus on succession planning and talent pipelining has allowed us to evolve our team as our business continues to grow quickly, and provide flexibility for our senior executives to balance life with world class work at scale. This week we’re bringing our top 100 leaders together in Wellington as part of Xero Week, which provides the ideal time to announce the transition.”
Drury said Ritchie’s decision to take a break was ideal timing, following completion of a two-year migration to Amazon Web Services (AWS), “one of the most complex and largest migrations of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region”.
“We’re pleased that Duncan is able to take a well-earned break. In his six years at Xero, he has built a team and platform to manage more than a million subscribers in 180 countries around the world. In particular, overseeing the biggest migration to AWS ever completed in Asia Pacific last year which sets us up for the next wave of industry innovation,” Drury said.
“Duncan will hand over the reins following a comprehensive transition in June, with a view to assessing roles later in the year.”