Former Xero UK CEO Appointed to Mazuma Board of Directors

Mazuma has today announced the appointment of Gary Turner, the former UK CEO and Co-Founder of software giant Xero, to their Board of Directors.

In January 2024, Mazuma secured a multi-million-pound investment from Innovation Investment Capital Limited Partnership (IIC) to fuel its growth and innovation plans and to further disrupt the traditional micro-business accountancy sector. Concurrently, Co-Founder Lucy Cohen was appointed as CEO.

Mazuma is a leading provider of accountancy services for micro-businesses in the UK, boasting a long-standing record of disruption and innovation. Founded in 2006 by Lucy Cohen and Sophie Hughes in South Wales, Mazuma stands out through its subscription model, which allows subscribers to choose from a range of competitively priced accountancy packages. The Mazuma service offering leverages proprietary technology through its MazApp© platform, combined with the expertise of a team of highly professional accountants, to deliver a service that simplifies the lives of sole traders, partnerships, and small business owners.

Gary Turner played a crucial role in establishing and leading the UK operations of the global cloud accounting platform Xero, which now serves over 4 million business subscribers. The former Microsoft executive spent 12 years on Xero’s global leadership team and brings more than 20 years of executive leadership experience in technology, operations, and strategy to Mazuma’s board.

Lucy Cohen, Co-Founder and CEO of Mazuma, said, “What excites me most about having Gary join our Board is our alignment in vision and purpose. His motivations at Xero were the same as ours at Mazuma. We are all about reducing the accounting burden for our customers so that they can focus on running their businesses. Gary has been on the growth journey that we are taking, and I’m thrilled that he has elected to bring his skills and experiences to Mazuma in support of our growth plans.”

Gary Turner expressed his enthusiasm about joining Mazuma, stating, “I’m delighted to be joining an organisation whose values so clearly align with mine. The UK’s 6 million small and micro-businesses form the backbone of our economy, yet many struggle to access the support and guidance they need to grow and prosper. I’ve long admired Mazuma’s focus here, and I am excited to be working with Lucy, my fellow board members and the executive team to help Mazuma play an even greater part in serving the needs of this vital sector of our economy.”

Cohen continued, “A business with the ambitions we have needs a team of incredible people to execute the vision. With Gary as an NED on our Board and our recent executive appointments of Emma Crawford-Falekaono as CRO and David Morris as CPTO, we have a team that can really help us accelerate our growth and further develop our client service offering. I cannot wait to see what we do next.”