Deputy - Welcoming Our New CEO, Silvija Martincevic

By Ashik Ahmed

WHEN STEVE SHELLEY AND I CO-FOUNDED DEPUTY 14 YEARS AGO, IT WAS JUST AN IDEA. WE FELT THE PROBLEM OF

MANAGING, SCALING, AND GROWING WORKFORCES AND HAD ALREADY SOLVED THE PROBLEM FOR OURSELVES, BUT WE WANTED TO SOLVE IT FOR

EVERY ENTREPRENEUR.

That’s why we called ourselves Deputy – the trusted second-in-charge. From then until 2016, we achieved some early success in proving our product works and securing our first investor. At this time, I became CEO! The company has scaled 20 times since then to bring on 330,000+ global workplaces and 1M+ shift workers worldwide. This wouldn’t have been possible without the trust and support of all of you. We believe Deputy is destined to make an even greater and more positive impact globally. On that note, I have an important and exciting announcement: Deputy has a new CEO, Silvija Martincevic, effective February 14, 2023.

Silvija has a proven track record and the right experience to grow Deputy while maintaining the culture of the business. She is a...

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After spending many years of my career at great US technology companies like IBM, Apple and Microsoft, having the opportunity to lead Xero, a company born in New Zealand, in a segment of the technology industry where Australia and New Zealand lead the world, has been the highlight of my career.

Xero has a purpose that serves a vital part of our economy in small business, which is so important to family, community, job creation, innovation and the health of our economy. Our #Human culture allowed me to feel at home in a workplace where I could be the real me.

The last couple of years have been tough. I don’t think anyone could have predicted the lasting impact of a global pandemic and the resulting shifts we all had to make [and continue to make] to deal with economic and global uncertainty. But out of challenge came resilience, innovation and a new found respect for doing what is right and good.

Looking forward, I will continue to support Sukhinder and the team until the end of May when I finish up at Xero. Following that I plan to return to what I was doing before Xero, which includes advising, speaking and coaching leaders and teams (much easier than doing it) and finishing the book I’ve been writing for a couple of decades now.

I’ll also spend more time with my grandkids, watching NY Jets games live on Mondays (instead of after hours on stream), and traveling with my partner Cheryl and enjoying the great life we have together in NZ (A country I have grown to love) and Australia (a country I have always loved).

Thanks goes to the Xero leadership team, Rod Drury...

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