Indian-origin technology executive Arvind Krishna has been elected chief executive officer of American IT giant IBM after a “world-class succession process”, succeeding Virginia Rometty, who described him as the “right CEO for the next era at IBM” and “well-positioned” to lead the company into the cloud and cognitive era.
The IBM board of directors elected Krishna as company CEO and member of the board effective April 6.
Krishna is currently IBM senior-vice-president for cloud and cognitive software and will succeed Rometty, 62, who will retire after almost 40 years with the company at the end of the year.
Krishna, 57, had joined IBM in 1990 and 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.
“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,” Krishna said in a press statement released by IBM.
Krishna said, “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,” Krishna said.
Krishna’s appointment as head of the global IT giant adds to the growing list of Indian-origin executives at the helm of some of the biggest multinational companies.
Krishna joins the club that includes Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga, PepsiCo’s former CEO Indra Nooyi and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen.
Rometty, who had been IBM’s chairman, president and CEO, will continue as executive chairman of the board and serve through the end of the year, when she will retire.
