From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Tuesday, February twenty five. Former political staff for Bruce Lamon is back in court, this time for allegedly stealing a car. A police charge sheet alleges Laman stole a Toyota Prado in the Huon Valley hamlet of Mountain River in late November. Laman faced the Magistrate's Court of Tasmania on Monday, but is yet to enter a plea. Peter Dutton says the Coalition could save six billion dollars a
year by sacking thirty six thousand public service workers. It's a move that would more than cover the spending increase on Medicare and comes as the Opposition leader challenges Labor to reveal how it will pay for the scheme. That story is live now at the Australian dot Com dot a u a wise Tech was one of Australia's proudest
innovation success stories, a multi billion dollar logistics business. Now it's a shambles, with directors walking out the door and an in battled founder asserting his dominance despite a series of embarrassing sex scandals. Today, how it all fell apart for Wistech and why all companies need to wise up. Everywhere you look in the corporate world, there's a charismatic tech genius whose personal life is unconventional.
Billionaire Bill Gates opened up for the first time since filing for divorce from his wife of twenty seven years.
Were you unfaithful in your marriage?
I certainly made mistakes and I take responsibility. Twenty six year old influencer has filed a custody petition with the New York Supreme Court asking to be granted sole legal custody of her and Elon musk as alleged son who goes by rc amid. The tech mod goes absent.
Jeff Bezos still the world's richest man after the most expensive divorce in history, his ex wife Mackenzie walking away with Amazon's Dark worth thirty six billion dollars.
But take any of these men away from the businesses they created, and what have you got A whole lot of uncertainty. It's called key man risk, the idea that someone big at the center of a business can't be replaced without risking the whole show. And in Australia, the perfect illustration is Richard White, the former guitar technician and lighting engineer who grew a billion dollar business out of his suburban Sydney garage. White's personal life seems to put
it kindly complicated. He's married to a woman named Zena Nassa. Last year, he settled a messy financial battle with another woman, Linda Rogan. A third lady named Jenna Riches has gone public about their romantic entanglement. I didn't hear from him. I heard from his wife, who told me in a text message not to contact her husband ever again. Other women have reportedly come forward with claims about inappropriate conduct. It's important to note Richard White denies any wrongdoing and
there are no allegations of criminality. Late in twenty twenty four, he stepped back as CEO of the business and accepted a new title founding CEO with a million dollar salary. But it seems Wise Tech is not coping with the new arrangement.
Richard is flexing his muscles to say, look, I own thirty percent of this company. I founded it. I'm not going anywhere. I'm the boss.
Jared Lynch is The Australian's Technology editor. He's been covering the latest twist in the Wise Tech drama as well as all the other big news in tech. And I caught him while he was on a brief stopover at Auckland Airport.
Well, sorry, I just wait till that ends. So Richard White owns thirty seven percent of Wise Tech. It was his baby. He founded it thirty years ago. He built it up from nothing to a forty billion dollar company. I mean, how many offers can do that in this life? What he's achieved is phenomenal. And as he said when our colleaguely And Mendez interviewed him as he was stepping down from the role of CEO, I'm not going anywhere, Mendez. I'm a journalist with the Australian.
Why have you resigned today, mister? Why have you resigned.
Today that I'm not talking? Are you concerned about more women are going to come out?
Mister Waye?
And what we've seen today is just that half the board have walked out the door because they couldn't erect agreement over his treatment. And he's shown investors and everyone else that I'm the boss.
Well the chairman and three board members of the software company Wisetech. We'll step down this week due to disagreements over the ongoing role of the founder, Richard White.
In Richard White's own words that we saw during the court case against his former lover Linda Rogan, is that if anyone comes after me in terms of litigation, I will always win because I've got more resources than you. I mean, it was almost like in the film Matilda or the novel Matilda. You know I'm bigger than you. I'm I'm always gonna win. It was exactly like that.
Listen to your little wiseacre.
I'm smart, you're dumb. I'm big, you're little. I'm right, you're wrong, and there's nothing you can do about it.
The directors who have just walked out the door had commissioned a full corporate governance review. Into White's time as CEO, it.
Started to win the company. I mean, they lost about six billion dollars off their market cap. I mean investors were hurting, and so he apologized. Interestingly, he didn't apologize for his behavior. He apologized for the distraction that the subsequent media attention brought. So whether he was really sorry or not remains to be seen. So it was a funny sort of apology. But regardless, he had a moment where he thought, I need to do something, I need
to have a circuit breaker. Things were going well their investor day in December. He shared the stage with Chairman Richard danruysaying I promise not to interfere in management. But then over the summer holidays something clearly has happened that has resulted in half the board walking out the door.
Yeah, investors are clearly concerned about Richard White's role in the company. But is your sense, Jared, that they're concerned that what the company would be without him? Or are they concerned that his behavior is problematic? Like do investors have an ethical problem with him? Or is it that they're worried that he might disappear altogether and then the company won't be worth their investment.
It's an absolute tight rope to manage because both scenarios are bad for Wise Tech share price. I mean, Richard White is Wise Tech. He built the company from nothing. I mean back in the eighties he was working on at Jupiter's Casino to ensure that the poker machines and stage shows wouldn't trip each other out. I mean, that's how he got his entree into the industry. And then he created this logistics software giant. I mean, he is the founder. He is so laser focused. He has built
into a forty billion dollar empire. If he were to disappear overnight with no clear succession plan, there's a risk that the company's share price would implode, and investors didn't want to see that happen. That's why everyone was so happy when they heard, Okay, he's stepping down from the roll of CEO, but he's going to stay on as a consultant, so you're not going to lose his presence.
He's knowledge, he's expertise. But then on the other hand, you do have these ethical problems that arise, and we haven't got to the bottom of yet because Richard White and in his ex lover Linda Rogan, they settled so that didn't play out in court. Now we've got this review that might not see the light of day because the former directors who have now left said they were going to release it. There are no certains where that's going to be a released now, so we never know
the extent of his behavior. He's alleged wrongdoing, what exactly that is. People are going to be in the dark. So it's a massive, massive, massive leap of faith that's going.
On coming up. Could all this have been avoided? And if so? How Some of the big investors in Wystech are big superannuation funds. Of course they have millions of members to whom they have obligations. Does that make them risk averse as investors jared in terms of what they're prepared to tolerate from the businesses that they invest in.
I mean, all the super funds have got big investment mandates which have got a strong ESG that environments social governance component to them. And that's what makes us in Australia so different to what's happening in the US, where Trump can sort of rip up the playbook on diversity and inclusion. But the same thing isn't happening here in Australia because the super funds have got so much sway.
The difference in wis Tech is you've got the founder, Richard White, who has got a close well he's the biggest shareholder at thirty seven percent, so he holds so much sway and he found at the company from nothing as well, so people are worried if he leaves, if he just rides off into the sunset. What will happen to Wistech And that is a big governance problem because there has been no succession plan that has been put
in place. He hasn't been thinking about that. To highlight that, Andrew Cartlidge, the current interim CEO, who was their previous chief fund actial officer, he had previously given he's notice that he planned to retire, but then when Richard stepped down as CEO late last year, he said, Okay, I'm putting that on hold now, I'm going to step into the bridge and steer the ship. That shows you the extent of the leadership chaos that's going on at the moment.
Yeah, last year a CEO search was launched, but it's not clear if that's even proceeding now. Would anyone want to be the CEO of this company given that you've got, on one hand, the founder breathing down your neck, presumably with very strong opinions about what should be happening, and on the other hand invest is extremely nervous.
There is no doubt the CEO off Wystech Global would be the toughest gigging corporate Australia for that very reason. How can you manage the company effectively. When you have got the billionaire founder who's the biggest shareholder, who is still walking around Alexandra with a million dollar year paycheck swinging his waight a hour. How can you manage a company effectively? What parameters could you install to ensure proper corporate governance? I mean it's an absolute mess.
Is there any way this could have been avoided? Do you think, Jared, apart from Richard White just staying home and having a Scotch finger and a cup of tea every night.
Good luck with that. I like that image too, how this could have been avoid it? Claire is just comes down to succession planning and every company should take a lesson from this. It's not good enough to pin your hopes on one person, regardless if they're the founder, whether they are a long serving CEO, whether they're a gun hot candidate or whatever. All corporates need to be thinking who's going to be next and then have a smooth transition plan that's ready to go in motion, because that
was the one element that was missing in Wistech. That's what's led to the company's undoing.
Jared Lynch is The Australian's Technology editor, Thanks for joining us on the front. We'll be back right here tomorrow. In the meantime, join our subscribers at the Australian dot com dot au