Arvind Krishna Elected IBM CEO, James Whitehurst Elected President
Arvind Krishna™ has been elected IBM CEO and a member of the board of directors, effective April 6, 2020. Prior to his new role as CEO, Krishna served as IBM senior vice president for Cloud and Cognitive Software, where he led the IBM business unit that provides the cloud and data platform for IBM clients. Krishna has played a significant role in developing key technologies such as AI, cloud, quantum computing and blockchain. He’s grown IBM’s Cloud and Cognitive Software business and was a principal architect of IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat.
The board also elected James Whitehurst™, IBM senior vice president and CEO of Red Hat, as IBM president, effective April 6, 2020. Whitehurst is an advocate for open software as a catalyst for innovation.
Former CEO and President Ginni Rometty will continue as executive chairman of the board through the end of 2020, when she will retire after her 40-year tenure with IBM. Rometty made bold changes that repositioned IBM for the future, reinventing over 50% of IBM’s portfolio and building an expansive hybrid cloud business that established IBM’s leadership in quantum computing, blockchain and AI.
Krishna will continue to build off of the strong foundation established by Rometty, and guide IBM skillfully in this fast-moving industry.