Indian-origin Arvind Krishna replaces Virginia Rometty as new IBM CEO

Indian-origin Arvind Krishna has been elected as the next Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IBM, the American IT giant, succeeding Virginia Rometty. Krishna has been working for the company as IBM Senior Vice President for Cloud and Cognitive Software and was reportedly a principal architect behind the acquisition of Red Hat.

Rometty will continue Executive Chairman of the Board till the end of the year when she will retire after almost 40 years with the company. Calling Krishna ‘right CEO for the next era at IBM’, Rometty said that 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.

“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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'Thrilled and humbled'

Krishna appreciated the confidence that Rometty and the Board have placed in him and said that he was thrilled and humbled to be elected as the next CEO of IBM. "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,” said Krishna.

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Another important leadership change occurred at Board level with James Whitehurst, IBM Senior Vice President and CEO of Red Hat, has been elected as IBM President, effective April 6, 2020. Whitehurst said that he was truly honoured to be elected as IBM's President and looking forward to working with Krishna, and with IBMers and Red Hatters alike.

According to Rometty, Whitehurst has been quickly expanding the reach and benefit of that technology to a wider audience as part of IBM. "In Arvind and Jim, the Board has elected a proven technical and business-savvy leadership team," added Rometty.

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