Virginia M. Rometty had been elected president and CEO of IBM Corp., replacing current Chairman and CEO Samuel J. Palmisano effective Jan. 1, 2012.
Palmisano will remain chairman, a position he has held since 2003, the company said.
Rometty, who joined IBM in 1981 as a systems engineer, is senior vice president and group executive for sales, marketing and strategy. As global sales leader, she is responsible for monitoring revenues and profits in all of IBM”™s 170 global markets.
Since Palmisano was named CEO in 2002, the company increased its earnings per share by almost five times and generated more than $100 billion in free cash flow while investing more than $50 billion in research and development.
