Former Google Executive Reveals Meeting with Nadiem, No Agreement on Using Chromebooks

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Scott Beaumont, former President of Google Asia Pacific, stated that the meeting with former Education Minister Nadiem Makarim in February 2020 did not result in any agreement for the ministry to use Google’s product, the Chromebook.

Scott conveyed this while serving as a character witness for Nadiem in the trial concerning alleged corruption in the procurement of Chromebook-based laptops.

“Did Nadiem explain in the February (2020) meeting that the ministry would later purchase a large number of Chromebooks?” asked Nadiem’s legal advisor, Radhie Noviadi Yusuf, during the hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Monday (20/4/2026).

“Not at all,” Scott replied.

Furthermore, Scott claimed there was no agreement whatsoever between Google and Nadiem regarding compensation in the form of stock investments.

Scott explained that the February 2020 meeting was an initial gathering between Google representatives, particularly the Google for Education team, and the ministry team led by Nadiem.

“As far as I recall, February was the initial meeting to discuss with the minister and his team, along with the Google team, projects related to education,” Scott answered.

He is often invited to meet with government parties to discuss various matters.

“I am often invited by local teams or even the ministry itself to represent Google,” said Scott.

In the indictment, Nadiem is mentioned as having met several Google executives, starting with Scott Beaumont when he was President of Google Asia Pacific and Colin Marson as Head of Google for Education, Google Asia Pacific.

Nadiem’s meetings with these technology company executives occurred in 2020. At that time, the ICT procurement was still in the planning stage.

The prosecutors suspect that these meetings were one of the conspiracies between Nadiem and Google to push through the Chromebook product for procurement in the ministry.