Humans of Xero: Gajia Lu

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Welcome to Humans of Xero! It’s an occasional series about some of the awesome humans that work at Xero. We’ll talk a bit about their work, their passions, some fascinating facts, and what makes them tick.

We’d like to introduce you to Gajia Lu, the Strategic Partnerships Director for Asia. We had a chat to her about life in and out of Xero.

Tell us about your role

My role is to build Xero’s relationships with financial institutions across Asia increasing connectivity between small businesses, banks and accountants. It’s also about working closely with organisations to create solutions and improve existing products and processes for our customers. Having previously worked in the financial sector I understand many of the challenges for small business and I’m passionate about how we help overcome these.

Everyday is different. I get to be a Xero spokesperson at industry events, manage complex commercial negotiations, work with our technical teams to deliver integrations, and contribute to the roll out of marketing activities with our partners. I particularly love when we receive feedback from accountants and small business owners about how Xero is saving them time, changing the way they do business, and unlocking opportunities for growth.

Why did you join Xero

When I made the decision to join Xero it was the first time I’d based it on the actual organisation as much as the role. I’d been a customer of Xero, had family who were Xero partners. And I had also been avidly following the Xero story for some time. Then after returning from a seven month trip backpacking through South America I went for an interview at Xero and was really inspired by the organisation’s purpose, to help small businesses grow and succeed. After meeting the people in my team I knew this was the place for me.

What’s working at Xero like

Xero has meaningful values that are embedded in everything we do and a unified purpose that everyone believes in and helps to focus our work. I think we have a great culture at Xero. I believe it’s the people that make it a really unique and a great place to work.

We have 22 offices around the globe and each of them offers beautiful work spaces. I particularly appreciated this when I recently moved roles from the Melbourne office to the Singapore office. It was great to enjoy an inspiring new workspace that also had that familiar ‘Xero feel’.

I also really love challenge myself every day to grow, learn, and think three steps ahead. I’ve been fortunate to get the chance to try a number of different roles at Xero and each of them has given me the challenge and career growth I’ve been looking for.

What’s something #human about yourself

I love to travel. I can’t resist the opportunity to make every holiday a crazy adventure. Some of my highlights have been the Mt Kilimanjaro summit trek in Tanzania, diving with sharks in the Galapagos Islands, cycling from London to Brussels, sailing in the Whitsundays, glacier trekking in Iceland, kayaking at dusk to see a Milford Sounds sunrise in New Zealand and Paragliding in Mendoza. And I’ve still got lots more on my bucket list to tick off!

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