Tech Council seat empty after decision to elect WiseTech’s Richard White over Robin Khuda backfires
TCA will remain a person down for the next eight months after a decision to pick embattled billionaire Richard White over AirTrunk founder Robin Khuda has come back to bite it.
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The Tech Council of Australia will remain one person short for the next eight months after a decision to pick embattled billionaire Richard White over AirTrunk founder Robin Khuda has come back to bite it.
Mr Khuda was a keen contender for the board position in June, looking to add to its expertise on tech infrastructure and data centres.
That was before Mr Khuda and his company skyrocketed in public admiration as he became a billionaire overnight.
He sold AirTrunk, which he had founded just nine years earlier, and its 11 Asian and Australian data centres for $24bn to American alternative investment firm Blackstone.
But now it’s understood Mr Khuda’s interest in joining the Tech Council has passed completely as the new rich lister works to make further strides in Australia’s booming data centre market and deliver on a goal of turning AirTrunk into a $100bn colossus.
Mr Khuda was overlooked in favour of Mr White and PEXA chief technology officer Eglantine Etiemble, a decision that just four months later would turn into a reputational disaster on the part of Mr White.
At the time, the Tech Council was proud to announce both appointments, writing about the new members that “their experience and leadership will be instrumental in guiding our strategic direction and enhancing our impact on the technology sector”.
On Monday last week, TCA confirmed that Mr White would “step aside from public commitments with the TCA while a personal matter is being resolved in court”.
On Thursday, just two hours after Mr White announced via an afternoon tea to celebrate WiseTech’s 30th anniversary in Sydney that he would be demoted from chief executive and director to a consulting position, TCA confirmed it had accepted Mr White’s resignation from the council.
“Richard White has advised the directors of TCA that he will resign from the TCA board. The board has accepted Richard’s resignation effective immediately,” a TCA spokeswoman said.
Mr White has taken on a consulting role at WiseTech and left TCA following a string of sensational allegations about his personal life that were aired amid a Federal Court case with his former lover.
That fight was about $91,000 worth of luxury furniture his ex-lover Linda Rogan had purchased – allegedly at Mr White’s direction – to deck out a secret mansion worth $13.1m in Sydney’s wealthy suburb of Vaucluse that he bought for her in 2022.
Mr White and Ms Rogan abandoned the legal fight on Tuesday last week with a settlement reached that is understood to be in the millions.
A TCA spokeswoman told The Australian that Mr White’s seat would not be filled for at least eight months.
“The position will be vacant until the next annual general meeting,” she said.
Mr White’s departure from TCA occurred just one day after the council had met with the man they overlooked, Mr Khuda, and other data centre operators.
NextDC, CDC, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Macquarie Technology Group, AirTrunk, Telstra, Leading Edge Data Centres, Equinix, STACK Infrastructure, GigaComm, Datacom and Mandala had all attended a session with Special Envoy for Cybersecurity Dr Andrew Charlton.
Mr Khuda, on the Microsoft-owned platform LinkedIn, said it was a “great initiative”.
TCA’s board seat will remain unfilled until June next year, with no movement to consider a replacement to take place until a few months earlier.
The board does not have directors with data centre or infrastructure experience let alone med-tech or telecoms. Current board members include Tesla chair Robyn Denholm, Canva co-founder Cliff Obrecht, former TCA chief executive Kate Jones, Culture Amp founder Didier Elzinga, current CEO Damian Kassabgi, Afterpay co-founder Anthony Eisen, Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar and former NSW customer service minister Victor Dominello.
TCA represents 1.1 million workers either working for tech companies or in tech roles in other industries.
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Originally published as Tech Council seat empty after decision to elect WiseTech’s Richard White over Robin Khuda backfires
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