A little-known executive who once worked as a guitar technician for AC/DC has ousted mining magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest as Australia’s richest boss.
WiseTech founder Richard White has taken the top spot on the AFR’s Rich Bosses List after Dr Forrest announced on Wednesday night he was separating from his wife of 31 years Nicola Forrest, wiping $20billion from his personal fortune.
The Rich Bosses List ranks the wealthiest executives of the 300 largest companies on the Australian stock exchange based on the value of their shareholdings in the business.
WiseTech Global founder Richard White is now Australia’s richest boss ousting mining tycoon Andrew Forrest (pictured with CSIRO scientist and Genics founder Melony Sellers)
Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest and Nicola Forrest (pictured), who have been married for 31 years and have a net worth of over $30 billion, said they will now be living apart
WiseTech is a software company focused entirely on the logistics industry that Mr White founded in 1994 after a few other successful businesses and a brief career in a rock’n’roll band in his 20s.
The company listed on the ASX in 2016 when Mr White was 60 and made him a billionaire by the following year.
White has described himself as a ‘refugee’ from the music industry who is good friends with iconic Aussie band The Angels and once worked repairing guitars for Angus and Malcolm Young of AC/DC.
While his first love was music he decided the business world suited him more – first making money from guitar repairing to then moving into stage lighting.
He felt the lighting equipment he was repairing was sub-standard so he began manufacturing his own, eventually establishing a factory and developing one of the world’s earliest digital lighting consoles.
By the 1990s he was running a consulting business in which he did work for a few logistics companies and noticed a gap in the market.
Freight companies, importers and exporters were having to physically have people on the ground in every country where they did business to navigate regulation, compliance and customs hurdles, an incredibly fragmented way to work.
WiseTech established itself as software to centralise and streamline cross-border operations, gradually building a cloud-based platform where information entered at one point in the system was instantly available everywhere else in the business.
‘My first business was called Rock Repairs because I repaired rock guitars,’ Mr White recently told Sky News.
‘It was very profitable but was limited by the hours in the day.’
Richard White (centre) speaking to Shearwater Capital founders at a recent dinner sharing some of his tips for success
‘So then my friend asked me to build some lighting equipment for him and using my father’s workshop I took that on.
‘When I started working I realised the parts weren’t built properly and they weren’t designed properly so I figured out many things. How to cast aluminium, how to weld them differently, how to use different types of tubing, how to make them stronger.’
‘We got lots and lots of orders and that took over as my main business which was very scalable and we moved through four different factories as we expanded.’
White said what he learnt about scaling a business was one of the main reasons WiseTech, which now employs about 2,000 software engineers, has become such a success.
‘With the software there is no physical assets so it can be replicated easily and the inputs are all human endeavour and finding ways to solve complex problems in new and better ways.’
‘When I founded WiseTech I had read In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters and the one thing that stood out from that book was to stick to doing something.’
‘I’d been a musician, guitar repairer, lighting manufacturer and wholesaler so I said this (WiseTech) is my last business and I’m going to keep working on it and make it into a gangbusters company.’
White speak to WiseTech staff, the company launched on the ASX in 2016 worth $1.1billion and has risen to be worth more than $10billion
White’s $10.5billion stake in is company puts him ahead of Forrest who, after a rearrangement due to the separation with his wife, holds a $9.2billion shareholding in Fortescue Metals Group.
Fortescue said there will be no change to the running of the mining giant, despite the marriage split between two of its major shareholders.
The Forrests have confirmed their separation, which they say will not impact their joint philanthropic and corporate ventures.
‘After 31 years of marriage, we have made the decision to live apart,’ the pair said in a statement.
‘Our friendship and commitment to our family remains strong.
They said there was ‘no impact on the operations, control or direction’ of Fortescue, their charitable arm the Minderoo Foundation or their private business Tattarang.
‘We will continue our shared mission to create and gift our wealth to tackle community and global challenges.’
Dr Forrest was estimated to be the second richest person in the country in terms of his own personal wealth, behind fellow mining billionaire Gina Rinehart.
In May, the Australian Financial Review Rich List put Dr Forrest’s net worth at $33.29 billion.
Most of his wealth comes from his stake in Fortescue, in which he and Ms Forrest hold a more than one-third interest.
The split will see him lose close to $20billion and see him drop to the eighth richest Australian.
Australia’s richest couple insist their separation will have no impact on the the strategic direction of their mining empire or their philanthropic ventures
In a statement to the Australian stock exchange, Fortescue said there would be no change to the control, direction or major shareholding of the mining company via Tattarang or Dr Forrest’s other associated entities.
‘Dr Andrew Forrest and Nicola Forrest will be transferring their wealth to charity over their lifetimes,’ the company said.
In 2013 the Forrests were the first Australians to sign the Giving Pledge – a vow also taken by Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Elon Musk – to give away most of their fortunes.
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