UPDATE – SAP has sent BizNews the following statement regarding our queries for an update on its current investigation. You can read the statement below:

SAP can confirm that a team from international law firm Baker McKenzie, assisted by forensic experts from FTI Consulting have arrived in South Africa and have commenced their investigations. We do not yet have any definitive dates for the conclusion of the investigations however, our commitment is to expedite the process while ensuring that these processes are comprehensive. SAP has committed to sharing the results of the investigations once these processes have been completed. In keeping with SAP’s commitment to transparency, Adaire Fox-Martin will engage with media when there is material information to share. We have not been approached by the South African Police Services.

JOHANNESBURG — Last week’s revelations about SAP’s controversial R100m payment to a Gupta front company in return for Transnet business has caused quite the stir. Four of SAP Africa’s management team have been suspended while a probe has been launched. After first keeping mum about it, SAP’s head office late last week finally announced that the probe would be carried out by multinational law firm Baker McKenzie along with the likes of forensic firm FTI Consulting. Meanwhile, Adaire Fox-Martin, Executive Board member for SAP’s Global Customer Operations, has flown to South Africa to oversee the investigation. She’s also been tasked with ensuring complete business continuity. However, below we have profiles on Adaire Fox-Martin, Baker McKenzie and FTI Consulting. Fox-Martin, interestingly, started her career as a teacher before joining Oracle to help with computer training. She was then snapped up by SAP and has become a veteran of the company. Forbes Magazine last year also did an interesting interview with Fox-Martin on her background: You can read that article by clicking here. – Gareth van Zyl

Adaire Fox-Martin Biography:

Co-President, Global Customer Operations Joined SAP: 2008 Appointed to Executive Board: 2017 Current Executive Board term expires: 2020

Adaire Fox-Martin is co-president of Global Customer Operations and a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE. She leads SAP’s business in EMEA and Greater China with a resolute focus on customer success, working closely with development and support leaders while overseeing SAP’s industry go-to-market efforts and field execution. Fox-Martin’s organization is passionate about customers’ ongoing digital transformation to realize greater business value through the use of technology. She maintains an unwavering commitment to the company’s vision of helping the world run better and improving people’s lives.

A winner of the SAP Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) Distinguished Leader Award, Fox-Martin embodies SAP’s leadership principles: ensuring customer success, driving simplicity, and developing amazing talent. Under her direction, in 2016 the company launched One Billion Lives (1BLives), an initiative to leverage the power of SAP technology to improve the lives of one billion people in APJ. Employee-conceived projects that are selected for the program receive seed money, executive support and a startup accelerator with industry experts. A champion of gender parity in the workplace, she also spearheaded Back-to-Work, an SAP APJ initiative that helps professional women re-enter the workforce after a career break.

Fox-Martin was most recently president of SAP’s business in APJ, excluding Greater China, where she ran the company’s multi-functional sales and operations organizations. Her inspirational, authentic and empathetic leadership style served as the foundation for the company’s success across the region and put SAP on the list of the Top 10 Best Multinational Workplaces in Asia for two years in a row. She worked closely with all APJ market units to build a strong pipeline and solid sales execution, and to reignite a spirit of teamwork across the region where SAP was ranked #6 by the Great Place to Work Institute in April 2017.

Prior to that, Fox-Martin was chief operating officer of SAP APJ. Before this role, she was senior vice president for Industry Business Solutions, where she was responsible for defining SAP’s strategy for long-term industry investment and the industry go-to-market for APJ. She joined the company in 2008 from Oracle Corp. as the head of Public Sector for APJ. In total her career in the IT sector spans more than a quarter century, including leadership positions across APJ and Europe in sales, business development, consulting, and education.

A graduate of Ireland’s prestigious Trinity College, Fox-Martin is a respected thought leader and a frequent speaker at seminars and conferences. She is regularly featured and quoted in publications across multiple geographies as a passionate advocate of workplace inclusivity and fulfillment.