Once the embattled software entrepreneur Richard White had resigned from WiseTech Global – the company he founded 30 years ago – it was only a matter of time before his resignation landed at the Tech Council of Australia as well.
It didn’t take long. After a day of high drama, Mr White resigned as a director and chief executive officer at WiseTech late in the afternoon, and by early evening he had also advised the directors of the Tech Council that he would resign from the TCA board.
“The board have accepted Richard’s resignation effective immediately,” a spokesperson for the industry group said.
The resignations follow weeks of scandalous headlines related to a court case involving an ex-lover and revelations of dubious alleged mentoring arrangements.
After initially seeking to weather the storm of bad press, ultimately it became too much, with 20 per cent being wiped off the value of WiseTech Global in the past week.
Mr White told the WiseTech board that he would stand down as a director and as CEO effectively immediately.
The company said after a period of leave that he would return to the company as a full-time consultant with the title “founder and founding CEO” reporting directly to the chairperson and being paid the same $1 million salary he was making as chief executive.
While Mr White is able to return to WiseTech in a role that will focus on product vision and business development, his role as a director at the Technology Council is over.
The Tech Council had been under growing pressure over the past week to remove Mr White from its board, with members unhappy with the way the scandal had been handled.
Specifically, members complained that the nature of the headlines detracted from TCA stated ambition for attracting more women into the technology workforce.
The TCA board had remained silent on the scandal until early today, when it sent an email to members, saying “the board continues to assess and monitor the matter closely and is following its governance processes.”
But that communication was followed this evening by a short statement saying the board had now accepted Mr White’s resignation.
In his resignation to the board, Mr White noted that “further to my new role at WiseTech Global, announced this afternoon, I will need to renew my focus on WiseTech and its growth, and on my family.
“The TCA has always had my full support. It is an incredible positive force for tech in Australia,” it said.
While the run of bad press, and the allegations that surfaced both during and alongside the court case had raised the ire of some Tech Council members, it was as much about some residual resentment about the way that Mr White had been appointed to the board that mobilised action.
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