12/31/22 | Bain & Company SEARCH

While in the Israeli Army Orit Gadiesh was an assistant to Ezer Weizman who would later serve as the 7th President of Israel

Dec 24, 2023

Bain & Company

is an American management consulting company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm provides advice to public, private, and non-profit organizations. One of the Big Three management consultancies, Bain & Company was founded in 1973 by former Group Vice President of Boston Consulting Group Bill Bain and his colleagues, including Patrick F. Graham.^[6] In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the firm grew rapidly. Bill Bain later spun off the alternative investment business into Bain Capital in 1984 and appointed Mitt Romney as its first CEO.^[7]^[6] Bain experienced several setbacks and financial troubles from 1987 to the early 1990s. Romney and Orit Gadiesh are credited with returning the firm to profitability and growth in their sequential roles as the firm's CEO and chairman respectively.^[8]

In the 2000s, Bain & Company continued to expand and create additional practice areas focused on working with non-profits, technology companies, and others. It developed a substantial practice around working with private equity firms.^[8]

Bain has been the subject of recent controversy related to its involvement with the South African Revenue Service.^[9]

Orit Gadiesh

South African Revenue Service Inquiry

In late 2018, a new South African government investigated the South African Revenue Service (SARS) for suspected corruption under the administration of former President Jacob Zuma.^[9] It found that in 2015 Bain & Company billed $11 million for consulting projects, where the firm gave bad advice.^[9] After interviewing just 33 employees over six days,^[9] Bain provided a restructuring plan that included downsizing the SARS Business Centre, which produced one-third of the tax agency's revenues.^[36] An investigation found that then-SARS head Tom Moyane followed an unusual procurement process favoring Bain, who Moyane had been in touch with before his appointment at SARS.^[37]

Critics claimed Bain intentionally collaborated in then-President Zuma's corrupt acts to favor his wealthy allies and help Zuma avoid taxes, contributing to a dysfunctional tax agency in the process.^[9] Bain claimed the consulting firm was an unintentional pawn in Zuma's conspiracies working under the head of the tax agency, a Zuma collaborator, that hand-picked the SARS employees Bain interviewed.^[9] SARS officials said Bain's reports were based on false and outdated information and that senior SARS officials were not consulted.^[38] Bain replaced its executive in South Africa and offered to refund the consulting fees.^[39]

The inquiry recommended that the South African National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) institute criminal proceedings in connection with the award of the consulting contract to Bain & Company.^[36]

Zondo Commission findings

The Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, Corruption and Fraud in the Public Sector including Organs of State (better known as the Zondo Commission) found that Bain & Company worked together with then President Zuma and Tom Moyane to facilitate the take over of SARS; and that this takeover was at least partially motivated to prevent SARS from using its powers to investigate incidents of corruption.^[40]^[41]^[42] It was noted that Bain & Company attempted to bribe a former company employee, Athol Williams, to "bury the truth"^[41] during the commission hearings.^[41]^[43] The commission recommended that all state contracts with Bain & Company be reviewed for possible incidents where the company received government contracts improperly.^[41]^[44]

Bain & Company denied the commission's findings of "wilfully" facilitating state capture within the SARS^[43]^[45] and claimed that they had "offered full cooperation to enforcement authorities."^[43]^[46]

The release of the report led to significant criticism of Bain & Company, including calls for expulsion from Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), a representative body of South African business. On 18 January 2022, Bain resigned from BLSA.^[47]

On the 3 August 2022 the UK Cabinet Office announced that Bain & Company had been barred from tendering for UK government contracts for three years after its “grave professional misconduct” in state corruption in South Africa.^[48] The decision was overturned and the ban was lifted in March 2023, with Bain now once again able to bid for public contracts in the UK.^[49]

South Africa's National Treasury announced on 29 September 2022 that Bain & Company had been banned from South Africa state contracts for 10 years, for alleged ‘corrupt and fraudulent practices’.^[50]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bain_&_Company

Orit Gadiesh

Born:

January 31, 1951 (age 72)^[1]Haifa, Israel^[2]

Citizenship:

Israeli
United States

Alma mater:

Hebrew University of Jerusalem (BA)
Harvard University (MBA)

Occupation:

Management consultant

Employer:

Chairperson, Bain & Company

Spouse:

Grenville Byford

Biography

Gadiesh was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1951, the daughter of a Berlin-born Israel Defense Forces Colonel Falk Gadiesh and his Ukrainian-born wife Pninah, a nurse. After completing her compulsory service in the IDF, in the office of the Deputy Chief of Staff Ezer Weizman, Gadiesh studied at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, graduating in 1975 with a bachelor's degree in psychology. Gadiesh graduated from Harvard Business School in 1977 in the top 5 percent of her class (Baker Scholar) and was awarded the Brown prize for the most outstanding marketing student.^[3]

Forbes has listed her among the world's 100 most powerful women four times since 2004.^[4] A frequent business speaker and journal contributor, Gadiesh is co-author of Lessons from Private Equity Any Company Can Use.^[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orit_Gadieshhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orit_Gadiesh

Orit volunteers her experience as a pragmatic strategist to business, civic, and academic communities:

Member | Board of Trustees and of the Community of Chairpersons of the WEF.
Member | Executive Committee, MIT Corporation.
Member and former chairman | International Business Leaders' Advisory Council for the Mayor of Shanghai (IBLAC).
Member | the Council on Foreign Relations; the International Advisory Council of the James Martin 21st Century School of the University of Oxford; the Advisory Council of the Peres Institute for Peace and Innovation.
Governor of Tel Aviv University.
Board of Directors, Schindler AG.
Previously: member of the Board of Directors, WPP (2004-2014), member of the Supervisory Board, Royal Dutch Philips (2014-2021).
Hebrew University, Jerusalem (BA, summa cum laude), Harvard Business School (MBA, with highest honors; Baker Scholar, presented with the Brown Award).