Xero's $25m CEO pay deal in focus as markets tumble, US growth stalls
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy is on track to be the second highest paid CEO on the ASX this year behind Macquarie's Shemara Wikramanayake.
Accounting software provider Xero has moved to defend the $25 million remuneration package for its US based CEO Sukhinder Singh Cassidy amid growing market murmurs over the pay deal and its ability to ever crack the lucrative North American market.
In the leadup to Christmas last year, Xero's board, which is led by former Telstra boss David Thodey, announced it would almost double Singh Cassidy's pay, putting her on track to be the second best paid CEO on the ASX after Macquarie Group's Shemara Wikramanayake, who last year pocketed $29.4 million.
Singh Cassidy is based in San Francisco, and the board justified the pay bump by arguing it would bring her remuneration into line with the CEOs of group of US-based software companies it considered peers including Atlassian, DocuSign, Twilio and Workday.
But the pay has still raised eyebrows across the market because Xero still generates most of its earnings from Australia, New Zealand and the UK, and there are doubts about its ability to crack the US where it lags behind Intuit, the incumbent and company behind Quickbooks and TurboTax.
