David Roberson spent a month running RoseRyan from Hawaii last year, and now the CEO is overseeing the entire accounting and financial services firm from a guesthouse in the backyard of his home in Silicon Valley. The website still cites an address on Bascom Avenue in nearby Campbell, California, but nobody works there anymore, and Roberson toils permanently amid redwoods, olive trees, roses and diffused sunlight a few yards from his patio.
“Historically, as CEO you had to be where the business was,” says Roberson, who was CEO of Hitachi Data Systems before joining RoseRyan as a vice president in 2018 and becoming chief a year later. “But these days, I don’t think anyone cares where you live, to some degree. I just hired a chief of staff, and she’s in Dallas, and she only asked: ‘What hours do you want me to work?’ I said, ‘Same as mine, and we’ll be just fine.’”
Is Roberson right?