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Credit: Thomas Fuller\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPublished on\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJuly 22, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Rick Carragher will leave Xero in early August after serving 16 months as chief technology officer, employees were told on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Credit: Thomas Fuller\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images.<\/p>\n
Key Takeaways<\/p>\n
Xero chief technology officer Rick Carragher has resigned and will leave the company at the beginning of August. <\/p>\n
It is the second departure from leadership in a month, with chief people officer Jeff Ryan finishing up at Xero in early July<\/a>.<\/p>\n Carragher is the company\u2019s second most senior engineer, reporting to chief product and technology officer Diya Jolly. <\/p>\n Xero is among the software companies hardest hit by the \u201cSaaSpocalypse,\u201d with its stock down over 60 per cent from its peak last June amid fears it could be disrupted by AI.<\/p>\n Madhuri Dhulipala, a managing director at BlackRock and former Salesforce VP, will soon join Xero as SVP of Engineering, Payments & AI Transformation.<\/p>\n Key\u00a0Background\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Xero\u2019s chief technology officer Rick Carragher will depart the ASX accounting giant in early August after a 16-month run, the company\u2019s employees were told on Wednesday.<\/p>\n A former director at Amazon, Carragher\u2019s appointment last May was part of CEO Sukhinder Singh Cassidy\u2019s rebuilding of the New Zealand-based company\u2019s senior ranks around alumni from US Big Tech.<\/p>\n Employees were told his resignation was due to the role\u2019s travel demands and difficulty working across multiple time zones, two sources familiar with the matter told Forbes Australia.<\/p>\n Carragher has helped develop Xero\u2019s AI strategy and implementation, as well as its Vancouver tech hub<\/a> initiative. Though Carragher carries the CTO title, he is the company\u2019s second most senior engineer \u2013 reporting to chief product and technology officer (CPTO) Diya Jolly.<\/p>\n It was also announced internally on Wednesday that Madhuri Dhulipala, a managing director at BlackRock and former Salesforce VP, would join Xero as SVP of Engineering, Payments & AI Transformation. Dhulipala will report to CPTO Jolly, a person familiar with the matter said.<\/p>\n Xero confirmed Carragher\u2019s departure and Dhulipala\u2019s appointment. <\/p>\n Carragher\u2019s resignation follows that of chief people officer Jeff Ryan, who left the company <\/a>in early July.<\/p>\n Crucial\u00a0Quote\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Xero said: \u201cWe thank Rick for his contributions and look forward to welcoming Madhuri in August.\u201d<\/p>\n Tangent<\/p>\n Like almost every other software company on the planet, Xero is grappling with how to best utilise artificial intelligence. Its share price has plunged over the past year due to investor fears AI could disrupt its business model by allowing small businesses to vibe code bespoke accounting software.<\/p>\n It is one of many companies caught up in the so-called SaaSpocalypse. Its stock is currently trading at $67.79, down over 60 per cent since its peak last June. Its peers in enterprise software are in a similar predicament: Atlassian is down 54 per cent over the past year, Salesforce 35 per cent and Monday.com 74 per cent.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s leadership has been a hot topic in corporate circles in recent weeks after Xero chairman David Thodey began approaching investors about reshaping Singh Cassidy\u2019s equity-heavy compensation package following Xero\u2019s stock fall.<\/p>\n Xero\u2019s board\u00a0in December 2024 granted<\/a>\u00a0Singh Cassidy 575,000 stock options, worth US$26.5 million at the time, to vest over three years. Those options carried a strike price of $171, meaning the current stock price would have to more than double for the options to be worth anything. Thodey is\u00a0reportedly asking<\/a>\u00a0Xero investors to reformat the package so it restores some of the value, giving Singh Cassidy an incentive to push the company through recovery.<\/p>\n Want to see more Forbes articles on your feed?\u00a0Tap here to make Forbes Australia a preferred source on Google.<\/a><\/p>\n Look back on the week that was with hand-picked articles from Australia and around the world.\u00a0Sign up to the Forbes Australia newsletter here<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0become a member here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on July 22, 2026 Rick Carragher will leave Xero in early August after serving 16 months as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4231,138,265976,627,111,139,69,145,17708,86495],"class_list":["post-540053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-asx","tag-business","tag-cloud-accounting-software","tag-entrepreneurs","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology","tag-workplace","tag-xero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}