WiseTech co-founder Maree Isaacs sells out amid Richard White scandal

Co-founder Maree Isaacs is set to collect an initial payment of $285m after a decision to sell her stake in the tech giant.

WiseTech co-founders Richard White and Maree Isaacs

WiseTech co-founder and director Maree Isaacs has sold her stake in the logistics software titan to Richard White, as the company reels from the fallout of a raft of allegations, including that he exchanged business advice for sex.

Ms Isaacs sold her 10.2 million shares in the $41.8bn company to Mr White, which was disclosed in an ASX filing late on Friday evening.

She owned WiseTech shares via her 8 per cent stake in RealWise Holdings, which controls about 37.4 per cent of WiseTech. Mr White owns the other 92 per cent of RealWise Holdings.

Ms Isaacs is set to reap an initial payment of $285m and future quarterly payments based on the volume weighted average price of WiseTech shares over a period of up to seven years.

Ms Isaacs said the sale would allow her to “access the value and liquidity of her shares” and she “remains committed to WiseTech and its future”.

“I am extremely grateful to Richard for his work and leadership in creating WiseTech. After 30 years of helping to build WiseTech, I was keen to start to unlock and realise some of the value in the WiseTech shares I hold through RealWise Holdings Pty Limited,” Ms Isaacs said.

“We are both excited about WiseTech’s future growth opportunities and continue to be as driven as ever on achieving WiseTech’s global growth ambitions.”

Ms Isaacs met White when he was doing some computer consulting work at Sydney radio station 2MMM in 1987.

Richard White, Maree Isaacs are the co-founders of WiseTech Global. Photographed by Nic Walker,

He was fresh from a stint ensuring the stage lighting didn’t trip the power to the poker machines at Gold Coast’s Jupiters Casino - and was at 2MMM’s office when its famously flamboyant owner Rod Muir theatrically took a chainsaw to the boardroom table after clinching a deal to sell the business to Glenn Wheatley and the Heine brothers, following acrimonious negotiations.

Ms Isaacs reported to 2MMM’s finance director Trish Richards, who would later help her cousin Neil Perry start the Rockpool restaurant business.

“When I came in to do their computer work it was Maree that I met,” Mr White recalled in an interview with The List, Australia’s Richest 250.

“I did a number of service calls there, and we became friends, and then a bit more than friends for a time. And then I eventually convinced her to leave Triple M.”

Mr White and Ms Isaacs have been working together ever since - Mr White as the lively Sydney-based boss of logistics software giant WiseTech Global, and Ms Isaacs in Brisbane as the executive director behind the scenes keeping the business running smoothly for three decades.

Ms Isaacs may be one of Australia’s most successful tech founders, but she keeps an extremely low profile. She has worked with Mr White for the best part of 37 years at WiseTech and before that at his Clear Group and their Real Tech Systems Integration.

In an interview with The List, Ms Isaacs remembered White as a “very interesting guy with an amazing vision” who would come into Triple M to teach her how to use a particular software system.

“Richard is a great person to work with,” she says. “Having invested in his business in the very early days, before we co-founded WiseTech, I’ve had a vested interest to help those businesses succeed.

“At WiseTech we have a great product, however, we don’t sit back and say we have done well and that is enough. Like Richard, I strive to make a difference in the world and the lives of our employees, customers and potential customers.”

Lawyers who have been reviewing the sensational allegations involving Mr White, which led to him stepping down from the company’s board and executive, have so far found “no evidence” of misconduct, attributing his behaviour to “creative abrasion”.

Chairman Richard Dammery released an update of the review from Herbert Smith Freehills and Seyfarth Shaw ahead of facing investors at its annual meeting last week.

The law firms examined five allegations, including that Mr White failed to disclose a number of “close personal relationships” in the workplace with the board, had misused WiseTech funds to have plastic surgery in 2019 and host former lover Linda Rogan in New York; and engaged in bullying, harassment and intimidation - an accusation raised by former director Christine Holman.

Mr Dammery said the findings were “largely the result of work conducted by Seyfarth Shaw, who interviewed 21 people in 30 interviews”.

“The advisers also retained specialist support as needed, including forensic accounting support. Each of the findings, which is self explanatory, indicates no impropriety by Richard White, in relation to the affairs of the company.”

The company also cut its annual earnings guidance, with Mr Dammery citing attention the sensational allegations attracted.

“I need to say that the board is disappointed that the diversion of Richard White’s attention away from product development at a critical juncture has impacted the timing of the release of some of the three breakthrough products. This will result in changes to both revenue and earnings guidance,” Mr Dammery said.

Mr White appeared at the annual meeting in a pre-recorded video message.

“I deeply regret the impact this recent media has had on the people around me – my family, friends, loved ones, the WiseTech team, and you, our shareholders. I am truly sorry for how this has affected each of you,” he said.

“While this time has been difficult and challenging, I want to assure you, that this has not diminished my passion and dedication for WiseTech and what this business will achieve in the long-term.”

Mr White later said he plans to stay at the company – both on the shareholder register and in a new consulting role in which he will report to the board and maintain his $1m a year salary.

“I’ve always taken the view that a gentle, orderly, predictable sell down is an appropriate thing for somebody who has a large stake and who is a founder and creator of the company. And I continue to have that view,” White said.

“I also continue to have the view that I will remain a substantial shareholder for the very long term.”