Key man risk doesn’t come any riskier than White.
A broker note from Evans & Partners suggested investors had been panicking last week about the possibility that White might be forced by the board to leave the company.
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Last year, White stood aside from the formal management position of chief executive to take a consulting role with WiseTech in what was widely viewed as a faux move to appease those who had been rattled by the allegations he stalked women on social media platform LinkedIn and claims that he had offered personal financial investment in return for sex.
The decision to install White as a consultant looked like a workaround patched together with tape and glue, but that was ultimately unworkable because the person with the title of chief executive was ostensibly answering to the guy with the title of consultant.
However, that consultant agreement was never signed because (ironically) White reportedly was unhappy about its potential to dilute his power.
But the board needed to do something to respond to the original allegations last year against White, and so it had hired lawyers to investigate.
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The law firms reviewed a series of allegations against White including alleged misuse of company funds, but preliminary findings concluded their investigations had uncovered “no impropriety”.
(The claims included allegations that White failed to disclose several close personal workplace relationships to the board, the company entered into transactions with suppliers with whom he had personal relationships, and he had misused company funds. Especially damaging were allegations from a former female WiseTech director that he engaged in “bullying and intimidatory behaviours”.)
Having navigated the earthquake allegations last year, the aftershocks just kept coming.
Last week, Nine mastheads reported three more women had come forward with allegations of inappropriate behaviour against White. Two of the new complaints were made by an employee and a supplier of WiseTech.
There is a school of thought that says what businessmen do in their private lives, regardless of how tawdry, should have no bearing on their public company roles.
But if complaints are made about behaviours or relationships inside the company, the governance stewards, ie the company directors, need to step in or risk their own credentials.
But they were never going to win a head to head with White. For them, abandoning the company was the least worst option.
