Virginia Rometty, present IBM Chairman, President and CEO, will retire. Instead, Arvind Krishna, the current IBM Senior Vice President for Cloud and Cognitive Software, will serve as CEO.
An American technology leader IBM has shared positive news: IBM stock jumps 5%, which results from appointing a new CEO.
On Thursday, IBM closed at $137.69 per share, 5% more than the day before. And it is continuing its growth, the price makes up $142.10.
IBM stock jumps 5% after its announcement about the change in the board of directors. Arvind Krishna, the current IBM Senior Vice President for Cloud and Cognitive Software, will serve as CEO. Further, Jim Whitehurst, Red Hat’s former CEO, will become IBM’s president. Virginia Rometty, present IBM Chairman, President and CEO, will continue as Executive Chairman of the Board and serve through the end of the year. Then, she will retire.
Rometty commented:
“Arvind is the right CEO for the next era at IBM. 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.”
She added:
“Jim is also a seasoned leader who has positioned Red Hat as the world’s leading provider of open source enterprise IT software solutions and services, and 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.”
The decision takes effect on April 6, 2020.
Rometty’s Efforts in the Company
Virginia Rometty has spent 40 years in IBM. After graduating from Northwestern University, Rometty worked in IBM sales, marketing and strategy departments. In 2012, she became IBM president and CEO. Notably, the years of her leadership were successful for IBM. Rometty invested in prosperous sectors of the IT market, optimized IBM portfolio, and contributed a lot to make the company the industry’s key player. While Rometty’s being in charge, IBM acquired 65 companies. Besides, it became the leader in AI, quantum computing and blockchain, and built a $21 billion hybrid cloud business.
Above all, Rometty promoted technical education around the world. She contributed to the rapid growth of Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools or P-TECHs. They help to prepare the workforce of the future, serving hundreds of thousands of students in 200 schools and 24 countries.
New CEO — New Game Plan
Arvind Krishna joined IBM in 1990. He has an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur. Besides, he did a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently, he is IBM Senior Vice President for Cloud and Cognitive Software.
Arvind Krishna stated:
“I am thrilled and humbled to be elected as the next Chief Executive Officer of IBM, and appreciate the confidence that Ginni and the Board have placed in me. IBM has such talented people and technology that we can bring together to help our clients solve their toughest problems.”
“We have great opportunities ahead to help our clients advance the transformation of their business while also remaining the global leader in the trusted stewardship of technology. Jim will be a great partner in the next step of this journey,” added he.
With Krishna, IBM expects to further expand its market and imply new strategies based on new executives’ vision. As Krishna knows IBM from inside, it will be not difficult for him to get used to his new role.
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