IBM CEO Palmisano to Retire, Rometty to Take His Place

From DailyTech: IBM has a long history as an innovative American tech company and is doing quite well in today's market. The company this week announced the replacement of current CEO Samuel J. Palmisano with a new CEO to take effect January 1, 2012.

The person that will be replacing Palmisano as CEO is Virginia M. Rometty. Palmisano also held the posts of chairman and President of IBM. He will keep the chairman title with Rometty also gaining a seat on the IBM board and taking the President title along with CEO. Rometty was previously the IBM senior vice president and group executive for sales, marketing and strategy.

“Ginni Rometty has successfully led several of IBM’s most important businesses over the past decade – from the formation of IBM Global Business Services to the build-out of our Growth Markets Unit,” Mr. Palmisano said. “But she is more than a superb operational executive. With every leadership role, she has strengthened our ability to integrate IBM’s capabilities for our clients. She has spurred us to keep pace with the needs and aspirations of our clients by deepening our expertise and industry knowledge.”

Palmisano has been the CEO of IBM since 2002 and became chairman in 2003. He performed well in his role as CEO with IBM setting record profits during his tenure. Rometty has been with IBM since 1981 starting as a systems engineer and working her way up the chain to the top position in the company.

For her part, Ms. Rometty added, “There is no greater privilege in business than to be asked to lead IBM, especially at this moment. Sam had the courage to transform the company based on his belief that computing technology, our industry, even world economies would shift in historic ways. All of that has come to pass”

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