Behind the investigation into New Zealander of the Year Sir Rod Drury

She had no idea I’d already heard her story

Early last month a source told me something I couldn’t do anything with.

She knew of concerns about a well-known New Zealander’s conduct towards a woman who had worked for him. It was clearly in the public interest. But it wasn’t her story to tell, and, for understandable reasons, she didn’t want to ask the woman if she’d speak with me, nor did she want to tell me who she was.

I had no way in. I filed it away and moved on to another story.

A couple of weeks later, the New Zealander of the Year awards were announced.

The next morning an email arrived.

It was from a woman named Ally Naylor. She had no idea I’d already heard a version of her story.

I went back to my original source to check whether this was the same case she’d been referring to.

It was.

The story had found its own way to me, without her having to push it. It was one of several coincidences that would follow in this investigation.

Ally Naylor had decided it was time to talk.

Naylor alleges that recently-knighted tech billionaire Sir Rod Drury, the founder of Xero, initiated unwanted sexual contact with her on multiple occasions at his apartment while she was a junior employee and he was the CEO.

She made a formal complaint through Xero’s internal whistleblower process in 2017. An investigation was launched.

In March 2018 Naylor requested the investigation report. She didn’t get it.

Drury stepped down as CEO four days later. He said then (and told me again in a phone call this week – more on that later) that his resignation was due to succession planning that had been underway for some time.

Ally wanted to tell her story now because of her discomfort at the public recognition he continued to receive, when her private experience with him had caused her distress. She felt strong enough now to talk about it. For the past decade she hadn’t.

After Ally and I talked off and on for a week, she asked for time to consider whether or not she wanted to be identified in any reporting. She said she would talk to her family over the weekend.

On the Monday morning, I was at my desk with two colleagues, talking through what it would mean if Ally put her face and her name to what she was about to tell the world. It’s not a small thing to ask of someone. It changes what the story is, and it changes what it costs her.

We were mid-conversation when her name appeared in my inbox.

She’d decided. Yes.

I leapt up from my desk and went into a quiet room to ring her.

We made plans to film a couple of days later.