What did I do to make you think that was ok? Nothing.
In the long and unfinished story of power and professional trust, Jenene Crossan has added her voice to a growing chorus of women who say Sir Rod Drury — celebrated founder of Xero and recently honored as New Zealander of the Year — used the architecture of mentorship to objectify rather than uplift. Her account, published a decade after a 2016 Auckland café meeting, is not merely a personal reckoning but a public question about what accountability requires when institutions investigate themselves. As Drury returned his national honor and Xero's external review proceeds on narrow terms, the distance between governance and genuine reckoning remains wide.
- Crossan describes walking into what she believed was a mentoring meeting, only to have Drury comment on her body and show her a zoomed-in photo of her chest he had saved from a newspaper — a detail she says made the nature of the encounter unmistakable.
- She is now the fourth woman to publicly accuse Drury of inappropriate sexualized behavior, joining a former employee, an ex-staffer, and his former private chef — allegations Drury has variously denied or declined to address.
- For years Crossan stayed silent, calculating the cost of speaking against one of New Zealand's most prominent tech figures; it was a 2022 photograph of Drury with a young female founder that finally moved her to send him a direct message detailing what he had done.
- Drury's eleven-minute reply — expressing regret 'if' she had carried the weight of it — struck Crossan not as an apology but as confirmation: he remembered, and he knew.
- Xero's external review, led by KC Maria Dew, is scoped narrowly to how the company handled a 2017 internal complaint, leaving Crossan's experience and broader patterns of conduct potentially outside its boundaries.
- Crossan is now calling for anonymous reporting channels, trauma-informed processes, and protection from retaliation — arguing that a review designed around institutional decision-making cannot substitute for a genuine examination of the conduct itself.
Jenene Crossan arrived at an Auckland café in 2016 expecting a founder-to-founder conversation with someone she admired. Within minutes, Rod Drury had commented on her body and shown her a zoomed-in photograph of her chest — cropped from a newspaper image he had saved to his phone. She cut the meeting short and said nothing publicly for years, absorbing the experience in private while calculating what speaking out might cost her.
In 2018, she shared the story — without naming Drury — at an International Women's Day event hosted by Xero's own leadership. A company executive recognized the account and asked if it referred to Drury; Crossan confirmed it did, but declined to escalate through a board member. The power imbalance felt insurmountable. It was not until 2022, when she saw a photograph of Drury with his arm around a young female founder, that she felt compelled to act — sending him a text that laid out exactly what had happened and what it had cost her.
Drury replied eleven minutes later with an expression of regret framed around her experience rather than his conduct. To Crossan, the speed and shape of that response settled something: this was not a misunderstanding he had forgotten. He knew. Her account, published on Substack in May 2026, made her the fourth woman to publicly accuse him of inappropriate sexualized behavior, following a former employee, ex-staffer Ally Naylor, and former private chef Megan Ruddle.
Xero has since launched an external review led by King's Counsel Maria Dew, but Crossan identified an immediate problem: the inquiry is scoped to how the company handled a 2017 internal complaint, not to the broader pattern of conduct or to allegations originating outside the employee base. When her legal counsel suggested her experience might fall beyond the review's terms, Crossan began publicly articulating what a genuinely safe process would require — anonymity by default, confidential pathways, trauma-informed support, and explicit retaliation protections. On the same day Drury returned his New Zealander of the Year title, the question of what accountability actually demands remained, by her account, unanswered.
Jenene Crossan walked into a café in Auckland in 2016 expecting a business conversation. She was a founder seeking advice from someone she admired. What happened instead would sit with her for a decade, resurfacing only when she saw a photograph that made her afraid for someone else.
Drury, the founder of Xero and recently honored as New Zealander of the Year, made a comment about her body almost immediately after they exchanged pleasantries. Then he pulled out his phone. The image on the screen was a zoomed-in photograph of her chest—cropped from a newspaper picture that had run days earlier. He had saved it. The specificity of that detail, Crossan would later write, created what she called a visceral reaction: the understanding that this meeting was not what she had believed it to be. Not founder to founder. Not mentorship. Something else entirely.
Crossan's account, published on Substack in May 2026, made her the fourth woman to publicly accuse Sir Rod Drury of inappropriate sexualized behavior. Three others had come forward before her: a former employee named Amy, ex-employee Ally Naylor, and Drury's former private chef Megan Ruddle. Drury had denied the allegations from Naylor and Ruddle. He declined to comment on Amy's complaint. When Crossan's account emerged, his representatives offered no further comment.
What distinguished Crossan's decision to speak was not the immediacy of her response but its delay. She had cut the meeting short that day in 2016 and said nothing publicly for years. In 2018, she shared the story—without naming Drury—at an International Women's Day event hosted by Xero's senior leadership. A company executive asked afterward if the story was about Drury. She confirmed it was, but when offered the chance to escalate the matter through a board member, she declined. The power imbalance felt too steep. She had too much to lose.
It was not until 2022, after seeing a photograph of Drury with his arm around a young female founder, that Crossan felt compelled to act. She sent him a text message detailing what had happened at their breakfast meeting—the phone, the photographs, the comment about her body. She told him it had made her question herself, made her wonder what she had done to invite such treatment. She asked him to reflect and hold himself accountable. Drury responded eleven minutes later with an apology of sorts, saying he was sorry if she had carried the weight of it, that he was aware of things he had gotten right and wrong, that he cared deeply about people and was always striving to improve. To Crossan, the response confirmed something crucial: this was not a misunderstanding. He knew what he had done.
The emergence of Crossan's account coincided with Xero's decision to launch an external investigation into the allegations, led by King's Counsel Maria Dew. But Crossan quickly identified what she saw as a fundamental problem with the process: its scope was narrow. The review was framed as an examination of how Xero had handled a 2017 employee complaint and the company's decision-making at that time—not as a comprehensive investigation into patterns of conduct or allegations from outside the employee base. When Crossan's legal counsel indicated that her experience might fall outside the review's boundaries, she began to articulate what she believed a genuinely safe reporting process should look like.
In subsequent posts, Crossan outlined her expectations: anonymity by default, confidential pathways that did not require identification, trauma-informed support, explicit protection against retaliation. She noted that Xero's current process fell short on several counts, particularly the requirement that participants identify themselves. The company's terms of reference, which Crossan published, did promise confidentiality and free counseling support, but they also made clear that the review would not re-investigate the original complaint—only examine how it had been handled. For Crossan, this represented a bounded inquiry into governance rather than a genuine reckoning with the conduct itself. On the same day Drury returned his New Zealander of the Year title, citing a desire not to undermine the integrity of the awards, the question of what accountability actually looked like remained unresolved.
Citações Notáveis
Your tits looked great over the weekend— Sir Rod Drury, alleged comment to Jenene Crossan in 2016
I'm 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.— Sir Rod Drury, response to Crossan's text message in 2022
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why did it take Crossan ten years to speak publicly about what happened?
She didn't stay silent entirely—she told the story in 2018 to Xero's leadership. But she didn't name Drury, and when given a chance to escalate it formally, she stepped back. She was calculating the risk. A young founder going up against someone with Drury's stature and connections felt like a losing proposition.
What changed in 2022?
She saw him in a photograph with another young woman founder and felt afraid for her. That's when Crossan decided the silence had to end. She sent him a text laying out exactly what he'd done and how it had affected her.
And he apologized?
He said he was sorry she'd carried it, that he was aware of his mistakes. But to Crossan, the apology itself was evidence he understood what he'd done. It wasn't a misunderstanding. It was a choice.
What does she want from Xero's investigation?
She wants it to actually investigate. Right now it's narrowly focused on how the company handled a 2017 complaint—the governance, the process. She's asking for something broader: a real examination of patterns, open to people outside the company, genuinely confidential, trauma-informed.
Is the current investigation likely to deliver that?
The terms of reference suggest not. It's legally bounded. It's about institutional response, not institutional reckoning. For Crossan, that's the gap between appearing to take action and actually protecting people.