Richard White looking forward as billionaire WiseTech boss fails to acknowledge scandal-ridden past
WiseTech exec chair Richard White described to a Sydney investment conference how he was bringing back a crew of loyalists to the software company where his grip on power grows.
WiseTech executive chairman Richard White spoke for 45 minutes in one of his first public outings since he was found to have misled the board over a relationship with an employee.
The software billionaire did not take a single unscreened question, but instead used his appearance at the annual Macquarie Australia Conference to pitch the investor community a new kind of founder energy.
Mr White told the room he was “back with a passion” noting he could “see things that a year ago, I just couldn’t have met”.
“I hope you can hear the passion in my voice,” he repeated.
Mr White now stands atop the $30.8bn logistics giant, having gained board control in February after four independent directors quit amid a lingering scandal surrounding his conduct and future role with the business. He returned to the board as executive chairman, and will recruit his successor as CEO.
Mr White was embroiled in private litigation with multiple women who claimed he traded professional mentorship or money for sex and intimacy.
But on Tuesday, the technology boss failed to reflect on the workplace scandal and he and his entourage made a quick exit after wrapping up a friendly fireside chat at the investment conference in Sydney.
“I’m very happy and passionate about the company, the staff and the customers as well.”
Instead of appearing alongside WiseTech’s interim chief executive and interim chief financial officer as scheduled, Mr White held court alone in the crowded ballroom.
His Macquarie host observed “a lot has changed in the last 12 months”.
Mr White told the crowd he was among the most committed executives on the ASX.
“You can read into everything I do as how passionate I am about WiseTech,” he said.
“I’m a very substantial shareholder, I’m very aligned, probably the most aligned you could ever imagine in a senior executive.”
Mr White said WiseTech had now “grown to a place it actually has the capability of doing things a decade ago would have been considered impossible”.
The exec chair told investors he was now seeking to rebuild the board, after appointing Chris Charlton and Andrew Harrison on March 31, noting they were an “excellent place to centre things”.
Mr White also pointed to a former staffer Zubin Appoo, calling on him to stand and greet the room after rejoining WiseTech seven years after leaving the firm.
Mr Appoo, who spent nearly 15 years at WiseTech, was announced on Tuesday, having been handed the newly created position of Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief Innovation Officer.
Mr White noted he had plans for several other additions to WiseTech, telling the room he was targeting a “founder, Silicon Valley type that you want to be on the books” to add to the board.
The WiseTech boss hoped more former staff would rejoin the firm noting he was seeking to retain talent “and when they do leave, they come back”.
Meanwhile, Mr White is returning to his acquistive ways and last week WiseTech confirmed it is in talks to buy New York-listed logistics software company e2open. The ASX software giant said there was no certainty the transaction would proceed.
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