Billionaires behaving bizarrely: Richard White is no usual chief executive

It’s an unstated rule for those executives occupying the upper echelons of large listed companies that they maintain a pretty sterile and uncontroversial life outside the office. It seems the founder and chief executive of tech giant WiseTech, Richard White, didn’t get the memo.

White – a billionaire 11 times over – is embroiled in a headline-grabbing salacious legal dispute with a one-time Real Housewives of Sydney contender/beauty entrepreneur who claims he expected a sexual relationship with her for an investment in her business.

Linda Rogan outside the Federal Court in Sydney on Tuesday and tech billionaire Richard White.Credit: Nick Moir / Oscar Colman

All the eye-popping details of the now soured relationship form part of an affidavit from the Linda Rogan who is fighting a bankruptcy petition filed against her by White.

Allegations of trysts in a six-star New York hotel and a Vaucluse mansion secretly acquired by White to allegedly house Rogan to hide the dalliance from White’s girlfriend are detailed in the document, complete with copies of text messages.

(The billionaire is alleged to have used the nom de plume “Rick Leblanc” during an online auction to buy the mansion in September 2022).

It is very difficult to imagine the staid lives of ASX top 20 companies executives reaching this thrilling level.

Perhaps the strangest element to this saga is that WiseTech has avoided becoming collateral damage.

Gossip communists would need to be satisfied snapping these chief executives at a charity dinner, a Business Council cocktail event or wedged in a peloton wearing lycra suit.

For context, White is the largest shareholder and chief executive of a top 20 ASX company worth $44 billion. Measured by market value, it is bigger than Woolworths, Telstra and toll operator Transurban, and not much smaller than our largest oil and gas company, Woodside.

The curious aspect to White’s explosive legal dispute is that he could have avoided the headlines by not pursuing Rogan for an amount of money which for him would represent chump change.

Without making any commentary on the merits of his case or any legal action she says she will mount against White, one could question White’s judgment in allowing his private life to become so public.

Perhaps the strangest element to this saga is that WiseTech has avoided becoming collateral damage. Its share price hasn’t missed a beat since the stoush erupted publicly a week ago. Over the past five trading days it has risen.

There’s not been a word from the company’s board of directors and barely a peep from the company.

The hockey stick shaped performance of the share price over the past five years and its prospect for continued strong earnings growth has been enough to keep his shareholders happy.

Unlike the chief executives of most of the nation’s largest companies, and all those mentioned above, White is an entrepreneur who has built his business over 30 years.

WiseTech founder and chief Richard White built his business over 30 years.

And he hasn’t traversed his path to big business via the traditional channels.

He began his working life as musician and music producer, and a roadie in the early 1970s – working alongside names such as ACDC and The Angels.

Despite the company’s remarkable success as a logistics software provider, it has not been immune from challenges.

In 2019, WiseTech became Australia’s largest-ever target of a short-selling raid after a research firm J Capital accused the company of inflating its revenue and relying too heavily on acquisitions for growth.

The two negative reports issued by the short seller resulted in WiseTech’s shares falling 21 per cent and carved $1.2 billion off the value of White’s personal holding.

The report landed at a time when the small number of Australian sizable tech stocks had been faring well and there was a fair degree of concern that their values had been inflated by the market.

But White’s latest challenge has a personal flavour.

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