Meet the Australian Leadership Team

Asantha

CEO

Asantha leads PaySauce with a clear focus: make payday simple and stress-free for small businesses. With deep experience in fintech, he’s built products that solve real problems for real people. He’s driving PaySauce’s expansion into Australia, bringing a mobile-first approach that fits how small businesses actually work. Asantha is focused on cutting through complexity and giving owners confidence every pay run, so they can spend less time on admin and more time on their business.

Chris Ridd

Executive Director

Chris leads PaySauce’s Australian expansion, bringing deep experience scaling high-growth tech businesses. As former Managing Director of Xero Australia, he grew the business from 7 people to nearly 300 and over 320,000 customers. With 30 years in technology, Chris knows what it takes to build, scale, and lead in competitive markets. He’s focused on helping PaySauce deliver simple, reliable payday experiences for small businesses, and building a platform that’s ready to grow.

Kelly Harvey

Head of Growth

Kelly leads growth for PaySauce in Australia, covering everything from marketing and revenue through to customer experience. With 15+ years in B2B growth and marketing, she's built high-performing teams from the ground up and helped businesses expand into new markets. Her focus is simple: make it easy for small business owners to find PaySauce, and give them what they need to get payroll right from day one. She wants every customer to feel like part of the PaySauce community, backed by real human support long after their first pay run.

Mel Shortland-Power

Strategic Partnerships

Mel leads sales and strategic partnerships at PaySauce, helping small businesses and their advisors get payday sorted. Formerly Head of Bookkeeping at Xero Australia, she brings deep expertise and trusted relationships across the bookkeeper and accountant community. Mel understands the real challenges small businesses face and focuses on simple, practical solutions that just work. She’s passionate about connecting the right tools with the right people, so business owners feel confident, supported, and in control every pay run.

Kelton Dunkley

Product Owner AU

Leading the adaptation of PaySauce for the Australian market. Focused on awards compliance, mobile timesheets and Xero integrations. Making sure the product works perfectly for Australian small businesses.

Anna Cochrane

Head of Customer Experience

Anna leads customer experience at PaySauce, making sure small business owners feel confident every payday. She brings over a decade of experience helping businesses adopt technology that actually works in the real world. Formerly a Growth Advisor at Xero, Anna has strong ties to the bookkeeping community and understands the pressure owners face getting payroll right. She’s focused on keeping things simple, practical, and human, so customers spend less time on admin and more time running their business.