Chris Liddell has joined Donald Trump's White House Staff
Xero director and chairman, Chris Liddell, has resigned his position after taking a new role as assistant to the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump.
Once Trump is sworn in, Liddell will join White House staff as assistant to the president and director of strategic initiatives, according to a statement from the Trump transition team.
He will also be charged with helping form and oversee a series of projects said to be major initiatives for the new administration.
Liddell has previously held executive roles at Microsoft and General Motors, and was most recently CFO of talent agency, WME-IMG.
The New Zealand software company congratulated Liddell on his new role and and thanked him for his three years of service with the company.
“Chris leaves us in a good position with strong global revenue growth, our subscription revenues growing faster than our costs, and a goal to achieve cash break even with cash on hand,” Xero founder and CEO, Rod Drury, said.
Liddell’s resignation will take effect on 20 January at 5pm, New Zealand time. His replacement, Graham Smith, will take over the role.
Smith has sat on Xero’s board for two years and chairs the company’s audit and risk management committee. He was previously CFO at Salesforce from 2008 to 2014. He also sits on the boards of US companies Citrix, Splunk, Mindbody, and Blackline.
“We are thrilled that Graham has accepted the role of chairman,” Drury said. “His global SaaS [software-as-a-service] expertise combined with the deeply experienced Xero board of directors will continue to guide our global footprint and industry-leading growth in revenue and subscribers.”
