WiseTech founder Richard White’s ex-lover Linda Rogan reveals future moves in first interview
Linda Rogan, the former lover of WiseTech Global founder Richard White has broken her silence after her court battle with the billionaire, revealing she is happy being single again - for now.
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After devoting much time to a highly publicised legal stoush with her former billionaire lover, WiseTech Global founder Richard White, Linda Rogan is relieved for the regained freedom and revealed she is happy being single – “for now”.
The wellness entrepreneur, once touted as a contender for reality TV show The Real Housewives of Sydney, is at the point where men are no longer part of her life plan.
Her focus is on launching a wellness app, Thrive Link, this month with her eldest son Liam Sartena, 21, connecting customers to a LinkedIn-style wellness directory encompassing everything from weight loss solutions, personal trainers, mental health therapists, health supplements, ice baths, plastic surgeons, among other services.
It comes after she settled a court case in which documents alleged an agreement with Mr White to invest in her company, Bionik Wellness, soured when his partner, Zena Nasser discovered the details of their relationship.
“Darl, the entrepreneurial spirit has been with me since day dot,” Ms Rogan said in an exclusive interview from her harbourside home.
“Liam and I have developed this wellness business because I believe you cannot be truly successful without a healthy lifestyle, the key to my happiness is to look and feel my absolute best.
“Bionik didn’t work out for me, but I’m excited about Thrive Link and going into business with my son.”
Ms Rogan’s court battles with the founder of the $32bn software giant centred on untested allegations of a $91,474 furniture bill and a $13.1 million Vaucluse property that White bought her.
It ended in a reported out of court settlement.
While Mr White, 70, has since had a comeback as executive chairman after four WiseTech directors, and the chairman, resigned, citing “intractable differences,” Ms Rogan, 53, is focused on her three children including Sophie, 13, and other son, Hugo, 19, and juggling business trips to New York and Paris to stay abreast of the wellness industry.
“Darl, cooking and cleaning is not for me, I’m a looker – not a cooker,” she says.
“Every relationship teaches you something.
“If something is too good to be true, it probably is.
“Who wants one man forever?”
“You can’t get everything from one person … It’s so much easier when it’s just you and you don’t get too locked in.
“I love Paris. The French are so stylish, charming and sarcastic – all my favourite things.
Born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and raised in Mackay in northern Queensland from the age of three, Ms Rogan built up a wellness empire, owning Laser Clinics franchises in Sydney’s Double Bay, Cairns and New Zealand.
Asked about her five-month relationship with Mr White, Ms Rogan is tight-lipped.
Women should be empowered to go into business alone, she said.
“It’s very hard for women in business to be taken seriously by men, women can get too hung up on men, – I wish they’d back themselves more and go into business alone and realise they’re enough,” she said.
“I’ve learned that you have to put in the hard yards, you can’t expect someone to provide it for you if you’re a genuine entrepreneur.”
Documents filed with the Federal Court reveal Ms Rogan and Mr White were introduced by Ms Nasser over dinner at Sydney’s Bambini Trust & Restaurant in 2022.
Around the time, Liam was hospitalised in Spain with an inflammatory response to a Covid vaccine, a period she describes as “traumatic”.
“I was forced to rely on a mother’s intuition and fight with neurologists in a foreign country to get the right diagnosis and treatment,” she said.
Her gut instinct, she said, is now “en pointe.”
“I’ll throw the dice and a lot of the time and don’t think too deeply about the consequences which has got me in trouble in the past and will probably get me in trouble again – but I’m not going to apologise for being me,” she said.
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Originally published as WiseTech founder Richard White’s ex-lover Linda Rogan reveals future moves in first interview