The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

By Antony Currie

MELBOURNE, Feb 26 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Founder's syndrome strikes again. Just four months ago, Richard White stepped down as CEO of Australia's WiseTech Global WTC.AX, the software firm he set up three decades earlier, amid reports of inappropriate behaviour. It was hardly a clean break: key-man risk prompted the board to retain him as "founder and founding CEO" on a 10-year consulting contract. Continuing tensions, though, led to most of the board quitting and White on Wednesday appointing himself executive chair.

Granted, the 70-year-old billionaire presented his directors with a thorny problem. On the one hand, while many of the allegations, published by Nine Entertainment news outlets, of either bullying or improper approaches to women involved people outside the company, a few did not. And one complaint was well known to the board as it came from one of their own, former director Christine Holman. She was told after making "numerous complaints" in 2019 that she should have "founder empathy and accept this is how geniuses are".

On the other, White owns almost two-fifths of the $20 billion company. And he is still regarded as its lynchpin, responsible for building a successful business that since its 2016 stock debut had, just before allegations against him surfaced in October, produced total returns of 3,330%.

His return might bring some stability for the company, which this week said revenue for the year would be at the low end of its range. Following the board exodus, White will now be surrounded by his pals, including a co-founder plus a long-time director and early backer who owns almost 5%. That should smooth his task of overseeing succession planning, including finding a permanent CEO. The firm's corporate anti-woke backers, which prize shareholder returns above all else, should be pleased too.

But it worsens WiseTech's governance problems - at present, for example, it has too few directors to comply with stock exchange rules. And by doubling down on White's importance, it makes finding a way out of the key-man risk all the harder. With the stock barely budging on Wednesday after the latest shenanigans wiped more than a fifth off the company's value in two days, shareholders may be starting to realise that governance matters too.

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CONTEXT NEWS

Australia's WiseTech Global co-founder and former CEO Richard White is returning as executive chair, the logistics software company announced on February 26, four months after he stepped down following allegations of inappropriate behaviour. At the time, he was slated to become a consultant to the company with the title of Founder and Founding CEO.

On February 24, non-executive Chair Richard Dammery and three other directors quit citing "intractable differences in the Board and differing views around the ongoing role of the Founder and Founding CEO, Richard White". Their resignation takes effect after the company releases results for the six months to the end of December on February 26.

The remaining board members are Maree Isaacs, WiseTech's co-founder and its head of licence management; and Charles Gibbon, who has been a director since 2006 and is, with an almost 5% stake, the company's fourth-largest shareholder, per LSEG.

Mike Gregg, Gibbon's business partner and a WiseTech director between 2007 and 2022, rejoined the board on February 26. The company hopes to add more directors, with at least one possible in the next four weeks.

The company also announced on February 24 that it expects revenue to be at the bottom of the range given at its most recent annual meeting as a result of delays to three key products.

Shares were up 0.3% by midday, having fallen 22% from their February 21 close in the first two trading days of the week.

(Editing by Robyn Mak and Ujjaini Dutta)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on CURRIE/antony.currie@thomsonreuters.com))