Ginni Rometty served as President & CEO of IBM for a verified duration of 8 years 3 months (3,018 days), from Jan 1, 2012 until Apr 6, 2020. During this tenure, Ginni Rometty guided IBM across major corporate milestones before retiring from the chief executive role.
Executive Succession & Corporate Facts
- Predecessor
- Sam Palmisano (Chairman & CEO)
- Successor
- Arvind Krishna (Chairman & CEO)
- Database Tenure Rank
- #50 Longest-Serving CEO in Database (View Full Rankings →)
- Company Founded
- Jun 16, 1911 (Armonk, New York)
- Known Aliases
- Virginia Marie Rometty, Virginia Marie Nicosia
Tenure Milestones & Transition Timeline
Ginni Rometty Elected First Female President and CEO of IBM
IBM's Board of Directors elected sales and strategy head Virginia Rometty to succeed Sam Palmisano as President and CEO effective January 1, 2012.
Ginni Rometty Takes Office as IBM President and Chief Executive Officer
Rometty officially assumed leadership of IBM, accelerating investments in Watson cognitive computing, hybrid cloud, and data analytics.
IBM Announces Agreement to Acquire Red Hat for $34 Billion
Rometty engineered the largest acquisition in IBM's history, purchasing open source leader Red Hat to establish IBM as the leading hybrid cloud provider.
IBM Closes Historic $34 Billion Acquisition of Red Hat
Rometty successfully closed the Red Hat acquisition, integrating Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OpenShift across IBM's enterprise software portfolio.
Arvind Krishna Elected IBM CEO; Rometty to Retire as Executive Chairman
IBM's Board elected cloud leader Arvind Krishna as CEO effective April 6, 2020, with Rometty remaining Executive Chairman through end of 2020.
Ginni Rometty Concludes Eight-Year Tenure as IBM Chief Executive Officer
Rometty formally stepped down as CEO on April 6, 2020, having restructured IBM's portfolio around cloud software and divestment of legacy hardware.
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