Over the past two years, our partners are familiar with Amanda Newton, who has been an incredibly passionate champion for the partner community. She’s now moved to a new role within Xero as General Manager – Partner Experience, looking at how we create beautiful partner experiences across all our Xero regions around the world.

So what does this mean for you? Our community is growing every day and we recognise how important it is. So we’ve invested in building an Australian community team to continue to champion the voices in our community. We’re so excited to introduce our new team (with one very familiar face) to continue to work alongside you everyday to champion your voices, open our Xero doors for collaboration and be your advocates. Erin Chancellor joins us as Head of Community and Alicia Moreau as our Partner Community Manager, who officially joins the team on the 14th September. Today, we chat to Erin about community and what’s brought her to this role.

What does community mean to you and what are you hoping to bring to this role?

I’ve worked in communications and community management for over 15 years.I am really passionate about the power of connecting people with the right information and the right time. Plus, there’s nothing more than the collective genius of a community.

I recognise I’m joining at a time where our community can’t get together in person and that’s really tough on everyone. It’s those hard to replicate those in-person connections so we have to work even harder to support and connect the community online in a way that’s meaningful and helpful. My focus will be evolving the amazing efforts of Amanda together with Alicia. I will also bring even greater focus to our community and shine a brighter light on things that matter to you.

Why Xero?

I grew up in a small business family and saw first-hand the extreme highs and lows of managing a small business in the 80s and 90s. I’m not an accountant, but I’ve worked in both the banking and digital industries for a really long time, so financial literacy and creating beautiful online experiences are both really important to me.

What’s been your COVID silver lining?

Buying and supporting local has become my standard way of operating. I definitely didn’t do this as much pre-COVID, but now, I try to procure local first every time I can. I have met some very inspiring people who have incredible stories to share.

What’s your way of ‘logging off’?

I moved to Canberra a few years ago for personal reasons. I’ve always been a hiker and we live right next to over 1,000 hectares of bushland. I have a young toddler, so free time is a rare commodity but I make sure that I get out there a few times a week with the dog and try to get as lost as possible.

Up next, we will be featuring our new Partner Community Manager, Alicia Moreau.

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