'Samosas now, not Hamburgers': Anand Mahindra quips as Arvind Krishna becomes CEO of IBM

Business tycoons welcomed the decision of IBM, an American IT giant, electing Indian-origin Arvind Krishna as its next chief executive officer (CEO) on January 30. Krishna, who has been working for the company as IBM Senior Vice President for Cloud and Cognitive Software, succeeded Virginia Rometty.

Anand Mahindra, billionaire businessman and the chairman of Mahindra Group, took to Twitter to call it a  ‘stunning endorsement’ of the managerial capabilities of Indian-origin managers. Mentioning the names of Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, Shantanu Narayen and Arvind Krishna, CEOs running four US tech giants, Mahindra said that it places a responsibility on Indian managers to demonstrate that they can take Indian companies to the top as well.

Read: Indian-origin Arvind Krishna Replaces Virginia Rometty As New IBM CEO

NITI Ayog CEO Amitabh Kant expressed his delight after Krishna was declared the new CEO of IBM. Calling him a visionary, Kant said that Krishna is a leader who has led IBM’s newer technologies like artificial intelligence, cloud and quantum computing. Harsh Mariwala, chairman of Marico, said that it fills his heart with pride when he sees Indians excel and wished that it may inspire many others to work harder and pursue their dreams.

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'Outstanding track record'

Former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, who will continue as Executive Chairman of the Board till the end of the year, said that Krishna is a brilliant technologist who has played a significant role in developing our key technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud, quantum computing and blockchain.

“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,” said Rometty in a statement.

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