Ginni Rometty is stepping down as CEO of IBM, with Arvind Krishna yesterday named to assume the role from 6 April.
Rometty, who has worked for IBM for 40 years, will continue as executive chairman of the company and will serve until her retirement at the end of the year.
Krishna is currently IBM senior vice-president for cloud and cognitive software, and was a principal architect of the company’s acquisition of Red Hat.
James Whitehurst, IBM senior vice-president and CEO of Red Hat, has elected by the board as IBM president, also effective 6 April.
“Arvind is the right CEO for the next era at IBM,” says Rometty. “He is a brilliant technologist who has played a significant role in developing our key technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud, quantum computing and blockchain.
“He is also a superb operational leader, able to win today while building the business of tomorrow.
“Arvind has grown IBM’s Cloud and Cognitive Software business and led the largest acquisition in the company’s history.
“Through his multiple experiences running businesses in IBM, Arvind has built an outstanding track record of bold transformations and proven business results, and is an authentic, values-driven leader. He is well-positioned to lead IBM and its clients into the cloud and cognitive era.”
She adds that Whitehurst is a seasoned leader who has positioned Red Hat as leading provider of open source enterprise IT software solutions and services. “He has been quickly expanding the reach and benefit of that technology to an even wider audience as part of IBM,.
“In Arvind and Jim, the board has elected a proven technical and business-savvy leadership team.”
Rometty became chairman, president and CEO of IBM in 2012. During her tenure she made bold changes to reposition IBM for the future, investing in high value segments of the IT market and optimising the company’s portfolio.
Under Rometty’s leadership, IBM acquired 65 companies, built out key capabilities in hybrid cloud, security, industry and data, and AI both organically and inorganically, and successfully completed one of the largest technology acquisitions in history.
She reinvented more than 50% of IBM’s portfolio, built a $21-billion hybrid cloud business and established IBM’s leadership in AI, quantum computing and blockchain, while divesting nearly $9-billion in annual revenue to focus the portfolio on IBM’s high value, integrated offerings.
Rometty also established IBM as a leading voice in technology ethics and data stewardship. She has been committed to building talent and skills around the world, creating thousands of New Collar jobs and championing the reinvention of education around the world.
“Ginni has provided outstanding leadership for IBM, substantially transforming the company and ushering in a new cloud and cognitive era,” says Michael Eskew, lead director of the IBM board of directors. “She has taken bold strategic actions to reposition IBM for the future, shedding businesses and growing new units organically and through acquisition, all while achieving record diversity and employee engagement and setting the industry standard for responsible technology ethics and data stewardship.
“With the strong foundation now established by Ginni for IBM’s future, the board is confident that Arvind is the right CEO to lead IBM,” Eskew adds. “The board ran a world-class succession process and found in Arvind a leader with the business acumen, operational skills, and technology vision needed to guide IBM in this fast-moving industry.”