When ASX-listed Xero announced former Google and StubHub president Sukhinder Singh Cassidy as its new CEO late last year, it was expected that she would be based in New Zealand, where the company is headquartered.
Singh Cassidy was announced last November as Steve Vamos’ successor, a decision that saw A$1 billion wiped from the company’s market capitalisation within a day.
Singh Cassidy co-founded fintech Yodlee in 1999, before taking a role as Google’s president of Asia Pacific and Latin America, which she held between 2003 and 2009. More recently, Singh Cassidy was president of online ticketer StubHub.
Despite her decision to remain based in San Francisco, Singh Cassidy said this isn’t a sign that the online accounts software company is increasing its US focus, but purely because California “sits halfway between Xero’s biggest markets” – Australia and New Zealand, and the UK.
“People might have thought fact I was in California was signalling something more, ” Singh Cassidy told the AFR.
“But, there is nothing to be extrapolated from where I live.”
Xero boasts 3.5 million subscribers, yet only 350,000 are based in the U.S.
“I’m used to running a portfolio where some countries are challenged,” Singh Cassidy said.
“I’m used to running markets that are leading, lagging, mature and immature.
“At Google, I spent six years … [in charge of] markets where we were winning, markets that were highly competitive and markets that were like Korea and China where we were lagging.”
Singh Cassidy took over the CEO role on February 1.
