Oracle SA awaits international decision

By Phillip de Wet for Oracle SA

Johannesburg, 31 May 2001

Oracle South Africa is waiting for the company`s international board to meet, sometime in June, to determine where its future will lie. Whatever the outcome, it is doubtful that Lenore Kerrigan will retain her post as local MD.

Marketing director Marc Gower says an earlier board meeting was delayed "due to a technicality", but that a meeting is due during June and that clarity should then exist as to the exact future of the local operation.

However, it seems many of the decisions may already have been taken, if not ratified.

"It has been decided to do away with much of the management structure here," Gower says. Oracle South Africa will in effect become a part of the UK operation.

According to Gower, the discussion around Kerrigan`s future role is pretty much a debate between Kerrigan personally and the international organisation.

"Lenore started a strategy in SA which isn`t really a global strategy," he says.

Despite the talk of dismantling management, Gower does not expect any other members of management to get the chop. "There are no other people involved. We don`t envisage retrenching anybody."

He does expect the UK business to have a direct involvement locally, most probably in the form of a UK executive stationed in Johannesburg, but that may also not be the end of developments.

"I believe we are moving through a phase and may still need an MD sometime in the future," he says. "That may be Lenore."

Kerrigan took up the position in July last year after the company had been without an MD for three months. At the time, Bob Gordon, senior VP for Oracle, Middle East and Africa, described her as ideal for the position. "Kerrigan has all the qualities we require to take our business forward in these exciting times," he said.

Kerrigan is officially still on leave.