Sir Rod Drury has been accused by four women of making unwanted advances towards them. Photo / George Novak
A tech CEO has made fresh allegations of unwanted sexualised behaviour from Sir Rod Drury, who she says commented on her breasts in a photo saved on his phone during what she thought was a mentorship meeting.
Jenene Crossan is the founder of the online beauty platform Powered by Flossie and posted an account of a decade-old interaction with Drury on Substack on Wednesday.
Crossan said the decision to go public with her account came after Drury told the Herald and other media this week that three women’s claims of unwanted sexual advances were part of a “sustained media campaign”.
Crossan has also questioned the terms of reference for an external investigation Xero has launched into its handling of a 2017 complaint against Drury from ex-employee Ally Naylor – pointing out it is not a “full independent investigation” that “re-examines underlying factual allegations” against the company’s founder.
In April, Naylor was the first woman to speak out about unwanted sexual advances by Drury. She has told the Herald she has been in touch with Crossan and shared her concerns about the Xero review and its ability to provide a safe pathway for complainants to come forward.
Crossan wrote on Substack that she met Drury at an Auckland cafe in 2016 to “share progress on my business and seek advice and guidance”, but soon after they exchanged pleasantries she alleges he said: “Your tits looked great over the weekend”.
Crossan claims Drury showed her “a zoomed-in photo of my chest” from a picture of her in a newspaper days earlier.
Three women have 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.
Yesterday, 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.
In response to Crossan’s claims, a spokesperson for Drury said they had no further comment.
Reflecting on being shown the picture of her in Drury’s phone, Crossan remembers being “shocked and confused”.
“I must have looked it, because he then pulled out his phone and showed me the image he was referring to – a zoomed-in photo of my chest from a picture that had appeared in the paper that weekend of me and my partner at the time,” Crossan said.
She was struck by the fact that Drury wasn’t showing her the article, Crossan wrote.
“[The picture] was saved in his camera roll. I had a visceral reaction: oof, gross.”
That was followed by dread and disappointment, she wrote.
“Because in that moment, I realised that the basis for the meeting I thought I was having – founder to founder, seeking advice – wasn’t what I had believed it to be.
“As a female founder, that question quietly sits in the background more often than people like to admit: why am I being helped?”
She’d spent weeks considering whether to say anything before Drury’s “characterisation of the current reporting as a ‘sustained media campaign’ convinced her it was the right time to speak about her experience – including her interactions with Xero senior leadership and board”.
Crossan said she “cut the meeting short” after Drury’s comment and then “zipped it up – filed it away, didn’t make a fuss”.
But in 2018 she shared the story, without naming Drury, after being invited to speak at an International Women’s Day event hosted by Xero’s senior leadership team.
Afterwards, a Xero senior leader asked if the story was about Drury. Crossan said it was, but turned down an offer for a Xero board member to contact her.
Aware of the power imbalance between her and Drury and that she had “far more to lose”, Crossan said she turned the offer down, something she regretted.
There were “other moments too – smaller on the surface, but cumulative in how they made me feel”, Crossan said.
“Emails addressed ‘Hey, supermodel’, comments that may have been intended as flattery but, in reality, created a sense of dread.”
In 2022, Crossan said she told Drury in a text message how the interaction had affected her, a move prompted by seeing a photo of him in the media with his arms around a young female founder and “feeling instinctively concerned for her safety”.
The Herald has seen the email and the text exchange with Drury, which Crossan references in her Substack.
“I’ve never forgotten the moment you pulled your phone out at our business breakfast meeting and showed me pictures you had stored of me on your phone… your casual sexualisation of our encounter… ‘your tits looked great’. The photos were very clearly zoomed-in images of my breasts. I was mortified,” Crossan writes in the text.
“It made me question myself… what did I do to make you think that was ok? It took me years to realise the answer: nothing. It was never ok.”
She asked Drury to “reflect and hold himself accountable for his behaviour”.
Drury replied 11 minutes later, writing that he was “so sorry if you’ve carried any of that for a period of time”.
“I’m super aware of all the things I got right and wrong over the years… I care deeply about people and am always striving to get better… I appreciate the nudge,” he wrote.
Crossan didn’t reply, feeling she’d said what she needed to.
But to Crossan, it also showed Drury’s behaviour wasn’t a “misunderstanding or something being surfaced for the first time”.
Crossan said over the past few weeks she’s been considering whether to share her story and has been in contact with Xero’s legal counsel and the King’s Counsel Xero had appointed to review matters in the public domain.
Xero has opened an external investigation after Naylor’s public complaint, with Maria Dew, KC, leading the review.
Crossan said she was open to speaking about her experience, but claims she was initially told ones like hers weren’t within the scope of the review.
Her experience also raised questions about Xero’s governance, given her belief that the incident was known within the company’s leadership in 2018, Crossan wrote.
In response to questions about Crossan’s account of her dealings with Drury, a Xero spokesperson assured the Herald, “we treat all allegations of inappropriate conduct seriously” but the company would not comment on the alleged series of events.
“We appreciate the difficulty of coming forward with information of this nature and provide different ways for people to speak up and for concerns to be treated confidentially and with the care required,” the Xero spokesperson said.
“In relation to historical events from 2017 and confidential personnel matters, Xero’s current board and leadership are committed to fully understanding and evaluating the events and Xero’s response with expert assistance.”
On Thursday, Crossan made an additional online post on social media platform LinkedIn, which she directed the Herald to.
Crossan claimed Xero’s legal representatives provided her further information about the “independent review” process now underway into the allegations made by ex-employee Ally Naylor.
Crossan said she had “reviewed the material carefully” and was keen to point out that the investigation is “NOT currently framed as a full independent investigation into allegations or broader systemic conduct patterns”.
“The review is primarily focused on Xero’s handling of a 2017 employee complaint and the company’s decision-making processes at the time,” she writes.
However, Crossan did “acknowledge there has been some movement” in the scope of the review to allow other individuals to raise concerns related to the management of conduct issues within Xero.
“At present, it appears to be a legally bounded review focused primarily on organisational handling and governance processes ‘at the time’,” Crossan said.
“That may still produce important insights. But it is not the same thing as a comprehensive external examination of the wider issues many people are now attempting to discuss.”
In a third Substack post this morning, in which she shared an information sheet provided to her that summarises the terms of reference for the Dew inquiry, Crossan outlined her own expectation of what a “safe” avenue for complainants to report alleged misconduct looks like.
In the document, also provided to the Herald, under the sub-heading “scope of the review”, Dew writes that: “A central focus of the review is to understand and evaluate Xero’s handling of that complaint and Xero’s decision-making and response. For clarity, this review is not a re-investigation of the factual matters raised in the original complaint.”
Crossan also provided her own view of a step-by-step process by which a company can provide a safe process to complain about misbehaviour.
She clarifies that: “I’m not writing this as a subject matter expert. I’m writing this as someone who has experienced harm – and as someone hearing from others in the same position and trying to work out what we would need to see to engage with a process like this with confidence.”
Under the headline “a working standard for any ‘speak-up’ process”, Crossan details a number of criteria she would expect.
She also expects the scope to be wide enough to include “historic[al] conduct, not just recent events” and be “open beyond employees to the wider ecosystem”.
Her expectations to “make participation genuinely safe” include being: anonymous by default, providing a confidential pathway without required identification that is also through “secure, purpose-built tools” other than email.
She calls for multiple ways to participate, including “written, verbal, supported”, which is “trauma-informed” and has “explicit protection against retaliation or harm”.
Crossan also provides a rundown of how she thinks Xero’s current process “falls short”, pointing out that “anonymity is not available by default” because it requires participants to identify themselves if they proceed.
However, in the Dew terms of reference posted by Crossan, it does state that: “Your information will not be used in the review without your consent”.
It also says “external confidential counselling support services will also be made available, free of charge, to any current or former employee of Xero who participates in the review. Xero will meet the costs of the external counselling service via its nominated provider”.
A spokesperson for Xero last week said “the current board and leadership are committed to fully understanding and evaluating the events and Xero’s response [to Naylor] with expert assistance”.
When asked if Dew’s inquiry would address the second allegations from Amy, the spokesperson said “additional matters” could be considered if they were “relevant”.
“The review will consider Xero’s handling of the 2017 complaint, and the related decision-making processes,” they said.
“The reviewer has the ability to interview any parties she considers relevant, and to consider any additional matters that arise during the course of the review.”
Xero said it would not be appropriate to comment further as the review is ongoing.
Anyone with relevant information can confidentially get in contact through the email review@xero.com.