Ginni Rometty

Virginia M. (Ginni) Rometty was born in Chicago in 1957, the oldest of four children. She has said her father left when she was 15; the family relied on food stamps for a time, and she looked after her siblings while her mother attended community college.⁠[1]

In 1979 she graduated from Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and electrical engineering.⁠[2]

As a student she was a General Motors Scholar with summer jobs at GM, and she joined GM after graduating. She married Mark Rometty, whom she had met in Detroit, a year after graduating, and he suggested IBM.⁠[1]

In 1981 she joined IBM as a systems engineer and worked her way up, later overseeing key businesses including the launch of Global Business Services.⁠[3]

She led the integration of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, which IBM called the largest acquisition in the history of professional services.⁠[4]

In 2010 she joined Northwestern University’s Board of Trustees, later becoming its vice chair.⁠[5]

In October 2011 the IBM board elected her, then senior vice president and group executive for sales, marketing and strategy, president and chief executive officer and a director, effective January 1, 2012.⁠[6]

Aged 54, she became the first woman to lead IBM, while Samuel Palmisano remained chairman.⁠[3]

In January 2012 she succeeded Palmisano as IBM’s ninth chief executive; on September 25 that year the board elected her chairman effective October 1, and Palmisano left the board.⁠[4]

On January 9, 2014, IBM launched the Watson Group in New York, planning to invest $1 billion over several years, with headquarters at 51 Astor Place in Manhattan. She said Watson “learns by experience and it learns from interaction.”⁠[7]

In September 2014 she topped Fortune’s “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” list for the third consecutive year; that year IBM also struck a deal with Apple to offer IBM services on iOS and pledged $1 billion to develop cognitive computing.⁠[8]

In January 2014 IBM sold its x86 server business to Lenovo for $2.3 billion; in October it announced it would pay GlobalFoundries $1.5 billion to take over its chip business. Presenting that quarter’s results she said: “We are disappointed in our performance.”⁠[9]

In 2015 Northwestern University awarded her an honorary doctorate, and she gave the main address at its 157th commencement, describing data as a new natural resource.⁠[2]

In January 2018 IBM’s quarterly revenue came in at $22.5 billion, up from $21.77 billion a year earlier, ending 22 consecutive quarters of year-over-year declines; she said strategic imperatives revenue “now represents 46 percent of our total revenue.”⁠[10]

On October 28, 2018, IBM announced it would acquire Red Hat for $190 per share in cash, a total enterprise value of about $34 billion. She said: “The acquisition of Red Hat is a game-changer. It changes everything about the cloud market.”⁠[11]

In April 2019 she received that year’s Edison Achievement Award, which recognizes one leader each year for a significant and lasting contribution to innovation.⁠[2]

On July 9, 2019, IBM announced the completion of its acquisition of Red Hat, funded with a mix of debt and cash, at an equity value of about $34 billion.⁠[12]

On January 30, 2020, the IBM board elected Arvind Krishna chief executive effective April 6, with her continuing as executive chairman through the end of the year before retiring. She said: “Arvind is the right CEO for the next era at IBM.”⁠[13]

On May 19, 2020, aged 62, she was elected a director of JPMorgan Chase & Co.JPMorgan Chase & Co.JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a financial holding company headquartered in New York that operates investment banking, consumer and small business financial services, commercial banking, financial transaction processing and asset management under its J.P. Morgan and Chase brands; its roots trace back to the Manhattan Company of 1799.Open the full entry, effective immediately.⁠[14]

In September 2020 the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) concluded in a determination letter that IBM engaged in systematic age discrimination between 2013 and 2018, saying more than 85% of those targeted for layoff were older workers; it was not a court ruling, and the EEOC first had to try to broker a settlement. IBM spokesman Edward Barbini said: “IBM makes decisions based on the needs of its business units, not age.”⁠[15]

On December 10, 2020, OneTen, a coalition of 37 chief executives of major companies, pledged to train, hire and promote one million Black Americans over the next 10 years, with her and Merck’s Ken Frazier as co-chairs. She said: “The people are out there with the skills.”⁠[16]

She retired from IBM on December 31, 2020, and Krishna succeeded her as chairman on January 1, 2021. IBM said that during her tenure she divested about $9 billion of businesses and completed Red Hat, the largest acquisition in its history.⁠[17]

In November 2021 IBM gave Northwestern University $5 million to endow two computer science professorships named for her, supporting research and teaching in artificial intelligence and machine learning.⁠[5]

On September 15, 2022, Cargill announced her election to its board; the company said she led the acquisition of 65 companies at IBM and noted that she is a trustee of the Brookings Institution and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and an MIT Visiting Innovation Fellow.⁠[18]

On March 2, 2023, she appeared on episode 362 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, “IBM CEO on Leadership, Power, and Adversity”; the outline covers IBM, hiring, leadership, adversity, power, taking over as CEO, Deep Blue vs Garry Kasparov, IBM Watson and work-life balance.⁠[19]

In March 2023 Harvard Business Review Press published Good Power: Leading Positive Change in Our Lives, Work, and World, written with Joanne Gordon and combining memoir, leadership lessons and big ideas.⁠[20]

The book opens with the story of her father leaving; she says caring for her siblings is one reason she never had children of her own, and, on sharing her personal life, said: “You have to reveal things,” so that others can learn.⁠[21]

X: Public account: https://x.com/GinniRometty (opens in a new window)⁠[19]

IBM: Official website: https://www.ibm.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[12]

OneTen: Official website: https://oneten.org (opens in a new window)⁠[19]

JPMorgan Chase: Official website: https://www.jpmorganchase.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[14]

Cargill: Official website: https://www.cargill.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[18]

Northwestern University: Official website: https://www.northwestern.edu/ (opens in a new window)⁠[20]