Xero CEO Pay Revolt: Why 70% of Shareholders Rejected the Remuneration Report

Xero shareholders have delivered a major rebuke to the board, with 70.6% voting against the company’s remuneration report at its 2026 annual meeting. The vote is not simply about the size of chief executive Sukhinder Singh Cassidy’s pay package, it is about whether the board has kept executive rewards aligned with the experience of shareholders.

Xero increased Singh Cassidy’s target remuneration to more than A$25 million after benchmarking the package against US listed technology peers. That argument has some logic, given Xero competes globally for technology and executive talent, but investors have also faced a. . .