Indian-origin Arvind Krishna named as IBM Chief Executive Officer

The IBM Board of Directors has elected Indian-origin Arvind
Krishna as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the tech giant. He has also been
elected as a member of the Board of Directors, effective April 6, 2020. 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, was also elected by the Board as IBM President, effective April 6, 2020.
Virginia Rometty, IBM Chairman, President and CEO, will continue as Executive
Chairman of the Board and serve through the end of the year, when she will
retire after almost 40 years with the company.

“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,” said Krishna.

“IBM has such talented people and technology that we
can bring together to help our clients solve their toughest problems. I am
looking forward to working with IBMers, Red Hatters and clients around the
world at this unique time of fast-paced change in the IT industry. 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,” he said.

It is worth mentioning that Krishna, 57, leads the IBM
business unit that provides the cloud and data platform on which IBM’s clients
build the future. His current responsibilities also include the IBM Cloud, IBM
Security and Cognitive Applications business, and IBM Research. Previously, he
was general manager of IBM’s Systems and Technology Group’s development and
manufacturing organization.

Prior to that, he built and led many of IBM’s data-related
businesses. He has an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of
Technology, Kanpur, and a PhD. in electrical engineering from the University of
Illinois at Urbana Champaign. He joined IBM in 1990.