US reunion as Deputy CEO Silvija Martincevic hires old US colleagues to lead international push

Silvija Martincevic, the first person to take the reins of time scheduling platform Deputy after company founder Ashik Ahmed, outlines her global ambitions for the brand.

Deputy chief executive Silvija Martincevic, right, and CCO Katrina Holt at Icebergs, Bondi. Picture: Jane Dempster

Deputy has hired three former colleagues from the US and the UK to lead the global expansion of the company, as the time scheduling platform looks to capture more of the UK, Europe, Middle Eastern and African markets.

New chief executive Silvija Martincevic took over the reins from founder Ashik Ahmed in March, and gave her first local interview to The Australian newspaper on Monday.

Ms Martincevic, a former chief commercial officer at US firm Affirm, said shortly after the pair met, the two shared a close bond.

“When Ashik and I met first, we realised very quickly that we’re kindred spirits, very much so that both of us came from communities where there was not a lot of opportunity,” she said.

Ms Martincevic grew up in Eastern Europe, born to a mother who worked in a shoe factory and a father who drove trucks across Europe.

Her humble upbringing was part of the reason she wanted to join Deputy, she said, adding that she believed most newer workplace technologies were aimed at white collar workers and it was those with blue collars who were often left behind.

“Hourly workers want the same things that we knowledge workers want – they want flexibility, they want the ability to grow and progress and they want recognition,” she said.

Deputy was often being asked by its clients, many of whom were in hospitality and labour-centric industries, how platforms could be used to engage and retain workers, Ms Martincevic said.

“We believe we can build a platform that can be that translation layer that allows businesses to build more productive and engaged workforces,” she said.

Ms Martincevic had travelled to Australia from San Francisco alongside her former Affirm colleague, Katrina Holt, who had been hired as the company’s first chief customer officer, and would be based in Salt Lake City.

Ms Holt and Ms Martincevic had worked together prior to re-teaming up at Deputy.

“The way that we started out together was with Silvija as the supercharger of the growth of Affirm and it was my responsibility to enable the back foundation and scale and in support of this massive volume of customers,” Ms Holt said.

Ms Martincevic added: “I think Katrina and I also share this mindset that nothing is impossible. There’s nothing that we cannot do together as a team.”

Asked how Deputy could avoid some of the wage theft scandals seen at larger companies in recent months, Mr Holt said the company’s origin in Australia’s highly regulated labour market helped.

“The fact that Deputy was founded in, let me be honest, one of the most regulated labour, employment, geographies you can find, navigating those complexities for a country like Australia is what I think what puts us heads and shoulders above other competitors. This is absolutely Deputy’s competitive edge,” she said.

“Most companies are not intending to engage in wage theft at all” and it was often complexities in different legislation across geographies which “inadvertently” led to wage theft, Ms Holt said, adding she hoped Deputy could stop that issue.

Deputy had also appointed another of Ms Martincevic’s old colleagues, Jon Wilson, who would become Senior Vice President of EMEA. Mr Wilson had worked with Ms Martincevic at e-commerce company Groupon.

Deputy has 318 staff based across the US, the UK, Australia and Asia. Its biggest workforce remains in Sydney with 186 staff, followed by the Philippines with 84 workers, closely followed by the US which has 41 remote workers, 28 in San Francisco and five in Atlanta, and then London and Melbourne which each have 23 workers. A further eight staff work remotely across Australia and New Zealand.

Asked whether Deputy would pull back on hiring locally as Linktree had when it announced further expansion into the US, Ms Martincevic said no.

“What’s ahead for Deputy is responsible growth, not compression,” she said. “The Australian market is our home base, this is where the Deputy brand is beloved by millions of hourly workers and this will continue to be an incredibly important market.

“I think too many companies, especially over the last few years, have scaled too quickly and have overextended themselves. And that’s not how it actually works.”