Thiel class gold, says Xero boss
Xero chief executive Rod Drury says New Zealand should not stop at Peter Thiel when it comes to granting citizenship to wealthy influential people.
In an interview with RNZ yesterday morning, Drury defended Thiel’s New Zealand citizenship and said: ‘‘We should be asking Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, or Bill Gates – those are the people we should be targeting.’’
US businessman Thiel was granted citizenship almost six years ago on exceptional circumstances, based on his skill as an entrepreneur and his philanthropic activities.
Drury and Trade Me founder Sam Morgan wrote letters in support of Thiel’s application.
When questioned if it was appropriate to grant citizenship to someone who had visited the country four times, Drury said the number of visits did not matter.
‘‘These guys have residencies all over the world but he had a soft spot for New Zealand,’’ he said.
‘‘The [Donald] Trump stuff makes it difficult but in the last six or seven years while we’ve been involved with him he’s been fantastic. It’s good for New Zealand, absolutely it’s good for New Zealand. He’s making it easier for us to grow global networks, and why aren’t we using him as a tool to attract others?’’
When asked if Thiel effectively bought his citizenship, Drury responded, ‘‘I think we willingly gave it [to him].’’
‘‘We need to start looking after ourselves and maybe in some areas we should be playing to win.
‘‘It’s a hard thing to bring up and it’s an emotional discussion, but maybe it’s more rational to encourage these relationships.’’
Xero has faced a backlash from customers after company chairman Chris Liddell decided to take up a key position in the Trump Administration.
In a series of tweets yesterday Morgan wrote that he supported Thiel’s application for citizenship and said ‘‘we should be encouraging more such immigrants’’.
Most Kiwis didn’t understand ‘‘just how valuable opening up to foreign investment and talent networks really is to us’’.
Although he wrote he didn’t agree with Thiel’s politics or support of US President Donald Trump, Morgan also believed Thiel’s investment in Xero was key to the company hiring more than 1500 staff. ‘‘Totally supportive of debate around how we grant citizenship. ‘‘We should not sell citizenship, but we need to attract talent and capital,’’ he wrote.
Thiel had been ‘‘super helpful’’ in a number of companies Morgan was involved in, he wrote.