Joel Macdonald (born 10 October 1984) is a businessman and former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er. He is the co-founder and former President of software company, GetSwift. Prior to starting GetSwift, Macdonald was an Australian rules footballer, playing for the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...

and the

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was formed in late 1996 via a merger of the Melbourne-based 1883 foundation VFL c ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL).

Early life

Macdonald grew up in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

and

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, Australia. He graduated from

Brisbane Grammar School , motto_translation = Nothing Without Labour , established = 1868 , type = Independent, day & boarding , gender = Boys , denomination = Non-denominational , slogan = , key_people = , ci ...

. He was recruited by the

through the 2003 Rookie Draft as a Queensland Zone player (QLD Zone) from

Mt Gravatt Mount Gravatt is a southern suburb of the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and a prominent hill and lookout within this suburb (). In the , Mount Gravatt had a population of 3,366 people. Geography The suburb is situated in the south-e ...

. He made his debut for the

in Round 10, 2004. After the 2009 AFL season, the Brisbane Lions delisted Macdonald along with 11 other players. In December 2009, Macdonald was drafted to Melbourne with the first selection in the pre-season draft. Macdonald appeared in 125 senior games over 11 years before he retired from football on 16 August 2013.

Business career

Liquorun (2013–2014)

In July 2013, Macdonald founded Liquorun, an on-demand alcohol delivery service with two other

players, James Strauss and Rohan Bail. The service expanded to operate across major Australian cities. In a 2015 interview, Macdonald said that their service had been questioned by the Victorian Police (for allegedly breaching the Liquor act while running Liquorun) but the matter was later dismissed.

GetSwift (2014–present)

In 2014, Macdonald re-branded the company as GetSwift, shutting down the delivery business in the process. In 2016, GetSwift listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. In June 2017, the company raised a further AUD$24 million and began announcing major partnerships. In November 2017, GetSwift announced a deal with Amazon along with funding, resulting in an 80% increase in their share price and putting Macdonald on Australia's "young rich list". The claim prompted the Australian Securities Exchange to halt trading in GetSwift shares until Amazon affirmed the deal but said GetSwift should not have disclosed it. In December 2017 GetSwift raised a further AUD$100M. In January 2018, as part of an investigation by the

Australian Financial Review ''The Australian Financial Review'' (abbreviated to the ''AFR'') is an Australian business-focused, compact daily newspaper covering the current business and economic affairs of Australia and the world. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New Sou ...

, GetSwift and Macdonald were alleged to have misled the market by overstating forecasts to the public and failed to disclose the loss of major contracts. The company was again suspended from trade after inadequately addressing questions by the Australian Securities Exchange. The company appointed

PriceWaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...

to investigate their compliance and MacDonald later admitted less than half of the contracts announced had resulted in revenue. The company was at one stage facing three class actions, including a $300M suit lodged in the Federal Court where MacDonald is named as a defendant. The Federal Court of Australia delivered its initial judgement on 23 May that the court had permanently stayed two of the three class actions in favor for GetSwift. The company is contesting the accusation and has separately accused

Squire Patton Boggs Squire Patton Boggs is an international law firm with 42 offices in 20 countries. It was formed in 2014 by the merger of multinational law firm Squire Sanders with Washington, D.C. based Patton Boggs. It is one of the 30 largest law firms in the ...

of overstating the claim to A$300M. In February 2018, the

Australian Securities and Investments Commission The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is an independent commission of the Australian Government tasked as the national corporate regulator. ASIC's role is to regulate company and financial services and enforce laws to pro ...

lodged an investigation into the Company. In April 2018, MacDonald stepped down as CEO, assuming the title of President and remained a director of the company. In February 2019, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission commenced legal action against GetSwift and its principals, MacDonald and Bane Hunter, for misleading claims about contracts with corporate clients for use of their product. In August 2022, GetSwift's former co-founder James Strauss launched legal action against Macdonald for misleading and deceptive conduct, accusing Macdonald of making several misleading statements that prevented Strauss from selling his stake in GetSwift after it listed on the Australian Securities exchange in 2016.

Legal issues

In January 2018 while CEO of GetSwift, Macdonald was accused of misleading the market by overstating revenue forecasts the public and failing to disclose the loss of what GetSwift claimed were not materially significant contracts. Macdonald's company GetSwift requested to enter into a voluntary

Trading Halt A trading halt occurs in the U.S. when a stock exchange stops trading on a specific security for a certain time period. The halt, which can happen a few times a day per security if FINRA deems it, usually lasts for one hour, but is not limited to ...

while they responded to questions by the

Australian Securities Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as ...

. This is the second time Macdonald's company has been suspended from trade, after the Australian Securities Exchange issued a trading halt and requested more information after the company announced a deal with Amazon.

Class action lawsuit

In February 2018 MacDonald was named defendant along with his company GetSwift in a A$300M

class action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

lodged in the

Federal Court of Australia The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law (with the exception of family law matters), along with some summary (less serious) and indic ...

for failing to disclose price sensitive information to the public. Shares in his company GetSwift suffered a 67% loss in the two days after the action was announced. The company is contesting the accusation and has separately accused

of overstating the claim. The Federal Court found GetSwift made misleading statements and breached its continuous disclosure obligations when making statements to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) between February and December 2017. In 2023, Macdonald and his company, GetSwift, were penalized for breaching Australia's continuous disclosure laws, in the amount of $1 million and $15 million, respectively. Macdonald was found guilty on 33 counts of misleading conduct and disqualified from managing corporations for 12 years. The Court also found GetSwift directors Bane Hunter and Macdonald failed to meet their obligations as directors due to their involvement in the announcements made to the ASX, and that they were both knowingly concerned in multiple continuous disclosure breaches made by GetSwift. ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court said "Listed companies and their directors have obligations to the Australian market to ensure their statements are not misleading. Investors need to have accurate information at their disposal to make informed decisions".

Reception

In 2017, he made his debut on the Financial Review's list of the top 100 richest young Australians, with an estimated net worth of over $100 million but his net-worth fell in March 2018 after his company GetSwift was later found guilty of breaching ASX listing rules 3.1.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, Joel 1984 births Living people Brisbane Lions players Melbourne Football Club players Mount Gravatt Football Club players Casey Demons players Aspley Football Club players People educated at Brisbane Grammar School Australian rules footballers from Brisbane