Rometty became CEO of IBM in 2012 and retired from the company on December 31, 2020. During her tenure she made bold changes to reposition the 100-year-old company for the future, investing in high value segments of the IT market and optimizing the company’s portfolio. Under Rometty’s leadership, IBM built out key capabilities in hybrid cloud, data, AI, quantum computing, security, and industry expertise, both organically and through acquisition. IBM acquired 65 companies during Rometty’s tenure as CEO, including Red Hat, the largest acquisition in the company’s history. Rometty reinvented more than 50 percent of IBM’s portfolio, built a $25 billion hybrid cloud business and established leadership in AI, quantum computing, and blockchain, while divesting nearly $10 billion in annual revenue to focus the portfolio on high-value, integrated offerings.
Rometty also established IBM as the model of responsible stewardship in the digital age. Rometty was recognized as an industry-leading voice on technology ethics and data stewardship, working relentlessly to safely usher new technologies into society. Rometty is a leader, innovator, and convener who believes that how we work and lead is as important as what we achieve. Rometty enabled people of diverse backgrounds and education levels to participate in the digital economy by building talent, skills, and opportunity for disadvantaged populations. Under her leadership, IBM created thousands of New Collar jobs and championed the reinvention of education around the world, including the explosive growth of the six-year Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools, or P‑TECHs, which are helping prepare the workforce of the future, serving hundreds of thousands of students in over 240 schools and 28 countries. Rometty also helped to redefine the purpose of the corporation through her workwith the Business Roundtable, expanding corporate commitments to include a wide range of stakeholders, from customers to communities.
IBM also achieved record results in workforce transformation under Rometty’s leadership. This included extending parental leave and making it easier for women to return to the workforce through a ‘returnships’ program with hands-on work experience in emerging technologies. This pioneering work was recognized in 2018 by the prestigious Catalyst Award. IBM is the only tech company to have earned this recognition in the past 20 years and the only company ever to be honored four times.
Beginning her career with IBM in 1981, Rometty held a series of leadership positions across the company and led the successful acquisition and integration of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, creating a global team of more than 100,000 business consultants and services experts.
Today, Rometty is the co-chair of OneTen, an organization that will combine the power of committed U.S. companies to upskill, hire and promote one million Americans without four-year college degrees, over the next 10 years, into family-sustaining jobs with opportunities for advancement. Rometty serves on the Board of Directors of JPMorgan Chase, the Board of Directors of Cargill, the Board of Trustees of Northwestern University, where Rometty is a Vice Chair, the Board of Trustees of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Board of Trustees of the Brookings Institute, and on the Council on Foreign Relations. Rometty is a member of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Advisory Board, and the BDT & MSD Partners Advisory Board.
In Rometty’s bestselling book, Good Power: Creating Positive Change in our Lives, Work, and World, (Harvard Business Review Press, 2023), she offers leadership lessons through the lens of her early life struggles, groundbreaking career, and the rise of the SkillsFirst movement.
Rometty has a Bachelor of Science degree with high honors in Computer Sciences from Northwestern University, where she later was awarded an honorary degree. She also has honorary degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, North Carolina State University, and Loyola Marymount University. She has been named Fortune’s #1 Most Powerful Woman three years in a row, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and has been honored with the designation of Officier in the French Légion d’Honneur.
BIO: Virginia M. (Ginni) Rometty
Rometty became CEO of IBM in 2012 and retired from the company on December 31, 2020. During her tenure she made bold changes to reposition the 100-year-old company for the future, investing in high value segments of the IT market and optimizing the company’s portfolio. Under Rometty’s leadership, IBM built out key capabilities in hybrid cloud, data, AI, quantum computing, security, and industry expertise, both organically and through acquisition. IBM acquired 65 companies during Rometty’s tenure as CEO, including Red Hat, the largest acquisition in the company’s history. Rometty reinvented more than 50 percent of IBM’s portfolio, built a $25 billion hybrid cloud business and established leadership in AI, quantum computing, and blockchain, while divesting nearly $10 billion in annual revenue to focus the portfolio on high-value, integrated offerings.
Rometty also established IBM as the model of responsible stewardship in the digital age. Rometty was recognized as an industry-leading voice on technology ethics and data stewardship, working relentlessly to safely usher new technologies into society. Rometty is a leader, innovator, and convener who believes that how we work and lead is as important as what we achieve. Rometty enabled people of diverse backgrounds and education levels to participate in the digital economy by building talent, skills, and opportunity for disadvantaged populations. Under her leadership, IBM created thousands of New Collar jobs and championed the reinvention of education around the world, including the explosive growth of the six-year Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools, or P‑TECHs, which are helping prepare the workforce of the future, serving hundreds of thousands of students in over 240 schools and 28 countries. Rometty also helped to redefine the purpose of the corporation through her workwith the Business Roundtable, expanding corporate commitments to include a wide range of stakeholders, from customers to communities.
IBM also achieved record results in workforce transformation under Rometty’s leadership. This included extending parental leave and making it easier for women to return to the workforce through a ‘returnships’ program with hands-on work experience in emerging technologies. This pioneering work was recognized in 2018 by the prestigious Catalyst Award. IBM is the only tech company to have earned this recognition in the past 20 years and the only company ever to be honored four times.
Beginning her career with IBM in 1981, Rometty held a series of leadership positions across the company and led the successful acquisition and integration of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, creating a global team of more than 100,000 business consultants and services experts.
Today, Rometty is the co-chair of OneTen, an organization that will combine the power of committed U.S. companies to upskill, hire and promote one million Americans without four-year college degrees, over the next 10 years, into family-sustaining jobs with opportunities for advancement. Rometty serves on the Board of Directors of JPMorgan Chase, the Board of Directors of Cargill, the Board of Trustees of Northwestern University, where Rometty is a Vice Chair, the Board of Trustees of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Board of Trustees of the Brookings Institute, and on the Council on Foreign Relations. Rometty is a member of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Advisory Board, and the BDT & MSD Partners Advisory Board.
In Rometty’s bestselling book, Good Power: Creating Positive Change in our Lives, Work, and World, (Harvard Business Review Press, 2023), she offers leadership lessons through the lens of her early life struggles, groundbreaking career, and the rise of the SkillsFirst movement.
Rometty has a Bachelor of Science degree with high honors in Computer Sciences from Northwestern University, where she later was awarded an honorary degree. She also has honorary degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, North Carolina State University, and Loyola Marymount University. She has been named Fortune’s #1 Most Powerful Woman three years in a row, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and has been honored with the designation of Officier in the French Légion d’Honneur.