Who will Richard White hire as WiseTech’s next chief executive?

Richard White was chief executive of WiseTech for 30 years. This week the 69-year-old founder took control of the company’s board and the search for its next CEO.

Richard White has made it clear to investors he still held the pick and he still plucked the strings at WiseTech. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Richard White always wanted to be a rock star. But he wanted to be famous more than he wanted to be rich, and he’s on the record saying so.

At 61 he got the latter, becoming a billionaire one year after the company that he founded in 1994 was listed on the ASX on April 11, 2016.

At WiseTech, he’s arguably the former – at least he was among investors and staff – and it’s a position he has held for more than 30 years. But now it’s time to hire a new chief and the company has yet to give any indication as to who it could be.

Some investors say it’s hard to imagine WiseTech being led by anyone other than White, a man who had held rock-star tech CEO status up until late 2024.

“One of the reasons investors love founder-led businesses is because they have the vision and they have that willingness to make things happen and he was very much like that,” TenCap founder Jun Bei Liu said.

On Wednesday, White made it clear to investors he still held the pick and he still plucked the strings at WiseTech, even if it meant four directors would depart on two days’ notice.

It’s understood White would have been chief executive still had it not been for a court case that involved a string of sensational allegations about his personal life including that he had offered business advice in exchange for sex. He didn’t go down without a fight, which consequently led to those allegations being made public.

At WiseTech he has chosen to fight again; despite stepping down into a consulting role in October 2024, he now has taken over the board as executive chairman. The announcement sent WiseTech’s share price spiralling and on Friday it fell a further 4.78 per cent to a new six-month low of $89.50. That took its market value to $29.94bn, down by more than a quarter from the week before.

WiseTech made the appointment despite knowing its board positions were not compliant with listing requirements.

“The company is aware it’s not currently in compliance with the ASX listing rules requirement for its audit and risk committee, and compliance is a top priority,” a spokeswoman told The Australian on Friday. But it believes it’s OK providing it makes swift appointments.

The spokeswoman also said the reappointment of Michael Gregg, the company’s sixth largest shareholder with 4.7 million shares or a 1.41 per cent stake and a 16-year WiseTech board veteran who departed in November 2022, was OK.

“The board is satisfied that he meets the classification of an independent director. He brings deep knowledge of WiseTech’s operations, products and services to the role,” she said.

But investors wonder who can replace White, who on Wednesday told them he was there “for the long haul with invigorated vision, passion and a trove of new ideas to continue to build the company that Maree (Isaacs) and I created that I love so much.”

White has spent the better part of a decade as a billionaire and up until late last year was invited and paid to speak at corporate events about his success and how he built a software logistics empire.

He has not been a shy or quiet CEO, often appearing on podcasts and making time to speak with journalists. He referred to himself as good at many things including playing the guitar, welding and electronics.

White often posed in front of his extensive guitar collection, the perfect backdrop for his background as a former guitar repairman working on instruments for the likes of AC/DC and the Angels.

That image is far different from the quieter life of WiseTech co-founder Isaacs. White once told a podcast “she was the organiser and I was the creative” and that she had always been able to keep things in check while he was “out there making wild stuff happen”.

This week, White told investors its international customers didn’t care about its “uniquely” Australian governance issues, confirming he would steer the recruitment of its next chief executive and its succession plan.

“They (international customers) don’t think about this market or these governance issues in Australia, they think about what is right for them for their product and their business,” he said.

Originally published as Who will Richard White hire as WiseTech’s next chief executive?