Xero founder Sir Rod Drury withdraws from Electrify Queenstown keynote speaker role amid accusations

Sir Rod Drury will no longer be the keynote speaker at a major business conference.

The under-fire Xero founder has been accused of inappropriate behaviour towards four women, dating back to 2015 and as recently as 2023.

He’s denied the claims of two women, and not commented on the claims of two more.

BusinessDesk reported this morning Drury’s name had been removed from the speaker list for Electrify Queenstown, a three-day summit between policymakers, businesses and energy experts promoting electrification and clean energy solutions.

Queenstown-based Drury was to present a keynote address at the event, which begins Sunday and includes the involvement of political big-hitters such as deputy prime minister David Seymour, Opposition leader Chris Hipkins, Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick and ministers Simeon Brown, Shane Jones and Simon Watts.

The three-day conference is taking place in Queenstown from Sunday.

Drury told conference organisers several weeks ago he’d be unavailable to speak at the conference, Destination Queenstown and Lake Wānaka Tourism chief executive Mat Woods said.

The tech titan is an advocate of renewable energy, and has called for the structural separation of the generator-retailers, such as Mercury and Genesis, BusinessDesk reported.

He’s also a major shareholder in public e-boat charging company Electric Wave, which received $267,000 co-funding from an EECA fund, and is backing Southern Infrastructure’s $400 million plan to build an electric, high-speed urban gondola system for Queenstown, they wrote.

Last week, tech chief executive Jenene Crossan became the latest woman to say she’d been the recipient of unwanted sexualised behaviour from Drury.

After meeting Drury at an Auckland cafe in 2016 to “share progress on my business and seek advice and guidance”, Crossan alleged Drury told her: “Your tits looked great over the weekend”.

In the account posted to her Substack, Crossan claimed Drury then showed her “a zoomed-in photo of my chest” from a picture of her in a newspaper days earlier.

Powered by Flossie founder Jenene Crossan claims Sir Rod Drury made unwanted sexualised comments to her in 2016.

The claims by the founder of online beauty platform Powered by Flossie came after three women had already alleged Drury made unwanted advances towards them – a former employee named Amy, ex-employee Ally Naylor and Drury’s former private chef Megan Ruddle.

Drury has denied the allegations by Naylor and Ruddle, and via a representative, declined to comment on Amy’s complaint.

In response to Crossan’s claims, a spokesperson for Drury said they had no further comment.

Xero founder Sir Rod Drury has denied the claims of two of his accusers, and not commented on the claims of two more.

On Friday, Drury handed back his New Zealander of the Year title, saying he did “not want the current situation to undermine the integrity of the awards”.

He maintained that he completely rejected the current allegations about him.

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