SYDNEY, July 9, 2026, 08:02 AEST
- WiseTech dropped 7.3% Wednesday after shares had surged following Richard White stepping down as chair.
- White stays on as executive director and chief innovation officer, while Raelene Murphy takes over as independent chair.
- Analysts and investors want to see if the board can stay independent but still let White keep his product job.
WiseTech Global shares dropped in Sydney on Wednesday, pulling back after a recent governance bounce. Founder Richard White is no longer executive chair but has remained with the logistics software firm.
WiseTech shares ended at A$34.65 on July 8, falling A$2.72, or 7.28%. That drop erased the gains from the prior session, when Raelene Murphy was named independent chair. WiseTech is now down almost 70% over the past year, a sharp fall for a former Australian tech leader.
The question isn’t only about who runs the board. Investors are weighing if WiseTech can keep governance independent while Richard White stays involved in product strategy, which many shareholders still view as key to WiseTech’s advantage.
WiseTech said in an ASX filing that Murphy started the job right away. White stays on the board as an executive director and keeps his spot as chief innovation officer. White called the media attention lately an “unnecessary distraction” and again said he denied the recent claims reported in the press.
The filing mentioned the risk from short selling, where traders borrow and sell shares expecting the price to drop. White said media attacks, which he claimed weren’t tied to how the company was doing, might drive this kind of trading. That comment came as the stock kept sliding and questions about the founder’s role came up again.
Reuters said Tuesday that White resigned as executive chair after media reports raised questions about his personal life, which he denied. WiseTech shares jumped as much as 10.6% on the news but later gave back those gains.
Murphy started on the board Jan. 1 and took over as lead independent director on May 1. She said White and the board got shareholder feedback, and said her dealings with him were “totally at odds” with media coverage.
Jackson Lee at RBC Capital Markets called the move “another step in the right direction,” ABC reported. But Lee said the market will want proof the new board, CEO and chief innovation officer can act independently before putting a higher value on the stock. ABC News
The board said it’s still looking for another independent non-executive director. Since March 2025, WiseTech has added Chris Charlton, Sandra Hook, Rob Castaneda and Murphy in those roles. A fifth appointment would bring the total number of independent directors to five.
Beneath the talk over governance, WiseTech is still making its business case. The company ran an update in February, keeping its fiscal 2026 guidance for revenue between $1.39 billion and $1.44 billion, with EBITDA forecast at $550 million to $585 million. That’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, a key profit metric in the sector.
The company reported first-half revenue up 76% at $672.0 million, citing the consolidation of e2open. Revenue from CargoWise climbed 12%. Management said they reached e2open cost synergies of $50 million in annualised run-rate savings in January, ahead of schedule.
The stock isn’t that easy to read. WiseTech claims more than 22,000 logistics firms and other clients in 193 countries, with 46 of the top 50 global third-party logistics players as customers. That’s scale few software rivals in Australia can reach.
The market has split on Australian software stocks. Xero has dropped sharply over the past year. TechnologyOne has done better. The S&P/ASX All Technology Index is still the main barometer as investors reconsider growth and AI effects.
The risk is that governance keeps dominating the conversation. If the new board can’t show investors it’s in charge, or if more claims and probes keep the focus on White and not on operations, then WiseTech’s earnings outlook could take a back seat. What counts near-term is who is actually running the company.
