SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Feb 11, 2014) - Xero, the global leader in online accounting software, today announced the expansion of its US executive team and Board of Directors with the appointment of Peter Karpas as Chief Executive Officer in North America, Chris Liddell as Chairman of the Board and Bill Veghte as a Director of the Board. These appointments come on the heels of rapid company growth, adding distinguished leadership with executive experience from S&P and Fortune 500 companies that include HP, PayPal, Microsoft, General Motors and Intuit.
"As you would expect from a fast expanding software company, our strategy is to increase US representation on our board," said Rod Drury, CEO, Xero. "These three high caliber appointments are all significant additions to our American-based leadership team and position us strongly in the US and globally. Adding their combined experience and capabilities will help us become the global leader in small business financial software."
Xero has quickly become the go-to small business backend system. With a strong open API partner ecosystem in the cloud, Xero gives small businesses the recipe for success by allowing the integration of critical business tools needed to not only succeed, but thrive. Xero's mission is to empower small businesses with a real time, easy-to-use and intuitive financial system that leads to smart financial decisions and overall business success.
Peter Karpas, CEO, Xero North America
Peter Karpas has been named Xero's CEO, North America. Karpas joins Xero from his recent position at PayPal, where he was the Vice President and General Manager, North America for Small and Medium Business. Karpas has also held a number of senior roles at Intuit, including Chief Marketing & Chief Product Management Officer and Senior Vice President.
Karpas' proven leadership and comprehensive familiarity with the B2B market in North America in both accounting and payments will help drive company growth in the US, where there are more than 29 million small businesses.
"The small business market is a massive opportunity and one that I am tremendously passionate about. Hard working business owners across the US contribute to more than half of our nation's GDP, and Xero is driven to help these businesses prosper," said Karpas. "I'm beyond thrilled to work with US President Jamie Sutherland and the team, as I've been a huge fan of Xero's cloud platform for several years and am impressed with its progress and customer centric approach. I believe we can be the No. 1 solution for small businesses in America and we're building the best team to make that happen."