I and undoubtedly lots of other people already knew that the Xenforo organisation is making a real commitment to the further development of Xenforo. This news illustrates that.
Taking on an employee is a big deal for a small organisation like Xenforo because the revenue has to be stable enough to guarantee that you can pay their wages every month. (I know because we have done the same at AVForums).
So this news also shows a level of confidence that the Xenforo team have in their product and its market.
Chris was the main developer for the addons we use at AVForums (most of them unreleased simply because he doesn't have the time to release them!), so I know from direct experience that Chris is a very capable coder. For example, given the spec for the AVForums Competitions addon (originally made by me for vB3), Chris 'Xenforoified' it, adding functionality and enhancing the UI.
This is indeed great news for Xenforo and all its customers.
Congratulations, Chris and the Xenforo team.