Xero has announced that Tony Ward has been appointed President of Americas region. Ward replaces Keri Gohman who became Chief Platform Business Officer in October 2018. Gohman has only led the operation for two years. Ward has spent most of his career in Australia and New Zealand after starting life as a professional cyclist representing Canada. The role sees him move his family to North America after stints at Microsoft, SurveyMonkey and most recently as Australia and NZ Country Manager at DropBox.

Xero CEO Steve Vamos commented: “It is great to have someone with Tony’s technology sales and product marketing knowledge and experience join the Xero Leadership Team and lead our America’s business through the next period of growth.

Enterprise Times: What does this mean?

Xero has struggled to find longevity in its leadership in the US. Unlike Gary Turner who has led the UK operation since 2009 in the UK. Turner has consistently delivered growth over the last ten years. In the most recent results, Xero UK is still hitting 45% growth.

It is a surprise that Xero did not seek another business leader with greater knowledge of the North American market. However, Ward is perhaps a better fit culture wise for the organisation. It has tried locals the last two times. Xero will hope that he can deliver the sustained growth that it is seeking in the region. It has struggled against a resurgent QuickBooks to take a significant share of the cloud accounting market.

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