Former Carsales customer chief joins Xero as Australian CMO

Vladka Kazda

Former Carsales marketer and chief customer officer, Vladka Kazda, has joined the Xero team to head up marketing.

Kazda joined the team officially on 13 May and is responsible for Xero’s brand and go-to-market strategy in Australia, a role which incorporates marketing operations, channel mix, analytics, automation and customer loyalty programs. She reports into Xero’s local managing director, Trent Innes.  

Kazda replaces Penny Elmslie, who has been promoted to a newly created global role of brand and community director but remains based in Melbourne.

In a statement to CMO, Xero said Kazda will work closely with Innes on reaching, engaging and growing the cloud-based accounting software group’s share of small business customers, accountants and bookkeeper partners. The company highlighted her digital experiences and 17 years in customer-focused, marketing roles as key reasons for her appointment.

“I’m thrilled to have joined the Xero Australia team at what is such an exciting time for the company,” Kazda said. “I’ve admired Xero as a business and as a brand for some time now, and it’s a privilege to be joining during a period of such rapid growth, but here and in overseas markets.”

Prior to the new role, Kazda spent 15 years at Carsales, the last three years as its chief customer officer with responsibility for converting its 6 million members email addresses into enriched data profiles to bolster personalisation and engagement.

Read more: 9 lessons in tackling customer retention and a single customer view at Carsales

Prior to this, she spent five years as its chief marketing officer, a role held by Kellie Cordiner since 2016.  

“We are delighted to welcome Vladka to Xero,” said Innes. “She is an authentic leader and a commercially savvy strategic marketer with an impressive track record in helping businesses scale. Vladka adds another dimension to our senior leadership team in Australia and will play a pivotal role in helping us reach, engage and grow our market share of small business customers and accountant and bookkeeper partners in the region.”

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