WiseTech co-founder Richard White steps down as chair, but keeps his board seat

Richard White, the billionaire co-founder of WiseTech Global, has stepped down as executive chair of the Australian logistics-software company, effective immediately, capping a fortnight of intensifying scrutiny. He is not, however, leaving the building.

White will stay on the ASX-listed group’s board as an executive director and keep his role as chief innovation officer, WiseTech said in a statement to the exchange. Raelene Murphy, who joined the board at the start of the year and became lead independent director in May, takes over as independent chair.

The timing is not subtle. In late June, media reports said the Australian Federal Police were investigating White over allegations that he exploited a woman’s immigration status for sex and provided false information on a visa application. He has denied any suggestion of trafficking, “strenuously and unequivocally”, and none of the claims has been tested in court.

“Recent personal media attention is creating an unnecessary distraction from the strength of WiseTech’s business,” White said, arguing that senior management should be free to focus on executing the company’s growth strategy. It is a familiar line for a founder whose exits have a habit of turning into returns.

He founded WiseTech in 1994 and floated it on the ASX in 2016, building it into one of Australia’s most valuable technology companies while remaining its largest shareholder. That founder-as-owner status has long complicated any attempt to loosen his grip on the business.

He stepped down as chief executive in late 2024 amid separate sexual-misconduct allegations, which he also contested, then returned in February 2026 as executive chairman. In between, four independent directors resigned, citing “intractable differences” over his continuing role.

WiseTech’s board had commissioned two law firms to review the earlier claims, and preliminary findings cleared White of serious wrongdoing on several matters. The company’s market value, which sits in the tens of billions of Australian dollars, has swung sharply as each new development landed.

Investors, for their part, read the latest reshuffle as a governance win. Shares in WiseTech rose as much as 10.6% after the announcement, a rare bright spot in a stock that has lurched with each fresh headline. The same shares had tumbled by double digits in late June, when the police investigation first surfaced.

Analysts and some investors had spent months pressing WiseTech to shore up its governance, and the appointment of an independent chair answers a long-standing complaint from proxy advisers and index funds alike. For a company that has otherwise reported robust revenue growth, the story keeps being about one man rather than the software.

WiseTech is not a marginal player. Its flagship CargoWise platform runs behind the scenes at thousands of freight forwarders, and counts giants such as FedEx, UPS, and DHL among its users, putting the company close to the plumbing of global trade.

Murphy, the incoming chair, offered a pointed defence of the man she is replacing at the top table. “My personal experience working with Richard is totally at odds with media reports,” she said, describing him as “an incredibly hardworking, focused and committed founder”.

The arrangement leaves WiseTech in a peculiar spot, common enough among founder-led tech firms: a new independent chair installed to reassure the market, and the founder still very much in the room. Reddit and Dropbox have both navigated similar founder-and-successor balancing acts.

What happens next rests with the board and, separately, with the AFP. White keeps his innovation brief and his board seat; the company keeps its founder and, it hopes, a quieter news cycle. Whether the two can coexist is the question the market will keep pricing in. For now, the market’s verdict is provisional, and White has shown he does not leave easily.