Virginia Rometty steps down as IBM chief executive

IBM has announced the promotion of Arvind Krishna to CEO and James Whitehurst to president of the Armonk-headquartered company, effective April 6. Both men replace Virginia Rometty, who will retain her position as executive chairman of the board until the end of the year, when she will retire.

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Krishna                                                                  Whitehurst

Krishna, who joined IBM in 1990, is senior vice president for cloud and cognitive software. Previously, he was general manager of IBM’s Systems and Technology Group’s development and manufacturing organization, and earlier in his career he built and led several of IBM’s data-related businesses.

Whitehurst is an IBM senior vice president and CEO of Red Hat, which was acquired by IBM in 2019 for $34 billion. He joined Red Hat after serving as chief operating officer at Delta Airlines. Earlier in his career, he was a partner at The Boston Consulting Group.

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Rometty

Rometty joined IBM in 1991 and became chairman, president and CEO in 2012, making her one of the highest-ranking female executives in the U.S. private sector. Her appointment gained her a position in Time Magazine”™s 2012 edition of “The 100 Most Influential People in the World.” During her leadership years, IBM acquired 65 companies and expanded its key capabilities in the hybrid cloud, security, quantum computing, blockchain and artificial intelligence fields.

“Ginni has provided outstanding leadership for IBM, substantially transforming the company and ushering in a new cloud and cognitive era,” said 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.”