The Xero Limited (ASX: XRO) share price is in the green today amid plans to grow the company.
Xero shares are currently trading at $107.56, a 4.06% gain. In contrast, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is up 0.46%.
Let's take a look at what Xero announced today.
New executive
Xero has appointed Chris O'Neill to the position of chief growth officer. This is a newly created role and part of the global executive team.
O'Neill will lead the growth of Xero's small business platform and strategic development of Xero in the Americas.
Xero is a technology company that provides cloud-based accounting software for small businesses. Also possibly boosting the Xero share price today is positive sentiment across the tech sector. The S&P/ASX All Technology Index (ASX: XTX) is up 2.08% today, while the NASDAQ-100 Technology Sector Index (NASDAQ: NDXT) climbed 2.33% in the United States overnight.
O'Neill has served as a senior executive, board member and investor for global technology companies such as Google and Evernote.
He will be based in San Francisco and will lead the direction and performance within the company's new applications and services division.
Commenting on the announcement, CEO Steve Vamos said:
The global cloud-based small business applications software market is still in a relatively early stage of development and represents a huge opportunity. Chris brings extensive experience to help further develop and grow a number of exciting business areas within Xero.
I look forward to Chris helping us further scale Xero's business in the US and Canada, building on our go to market and product efforts to date; through partnerships, acquisitions, and further development of our product capabilities to meet the needs of customers and partners.
Xero share price snapshot
The Xero share price has fallen around 18% in a year and almost 25% this year to date.
The company's shares have soared 9% in the past month, while they are up almost 8% in the past week alone.
For perspective, the benchmark ASX index has returned about 10% over the past year.
The company has a market capitalisation of about $15 billion based on the current share price.
