The Journey

Accountant, Product Manager,
Co-Founder, Now AI-Native Builder

I started as a Chartered Accountant at Ernst & Young, not because I loved debits and credits, but because auditing let me study how businesses actually work. That curiosity pulled me into SaaS product management at Xero, where I discovered machine learning and led the teams building Xero's first customer-facing ML models. I combined all of it when I co-founded Cassia, an AI startup automating small business bookkeeping. Now I'm focused on what comes next: building with agentic AI and rethinking what product management looks like when the tools can do the work.

Now
SMI
Jul 2025 — Present

Senior Product Owner

Starboard Maritime Intelligence

Full-time · Wellington

C
Jan 2025 — Oct 2025

Co-Founder

Cassia

AI agents automating small business bookkeeping

C
Aug 2023 — Feb 2025

Contractor

Independent

Product management, business analysis, and user research

🎤

Speaker at Information Architecture Conference & UXNZ

2023
OW
Jan 2022 — Jun 2023

Product Manager

Optimal Workshop

50% increase in direct-to-paid conversion

WT
Feb 2020 — Jan 2022

Manager, Claims & Registry

Waitangi Tribunal, Ministry of Justice

Led a team of 12, managing $2M annual expenditure

🎓

Diploma in Te Reo Māori & Te Ao Māori

Te Wānanga o Raukawa · 2019
xero
Sep 2014 — Feb 2020 · 5 yrs 6 mos

Xero

Wellington, New Zealand

From business analyst to group product manager of four teams

🌏

Speaker at conferences and sales events

NZ, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, USA
📜

Chartered Accountant

CA ANZ · Issued May 2012
EY
Feb 2009 — Aug 2014 · 5 yrs 7 mos

Ernst & Young

Wellington & Rotterdam

Where it all started, from graduate auditor to assistant manager

🎓

Victoria University of Wellington

BCA, Accountancy & Commercial Law · PGDip Professional Accountancy · 2004 — 2008