IBM names its next president and CEO

OLD SCHOOL ENTERPRISE COMPUTING OUTFIT IBM has appointed Virginia M. Rometty as its president and CEO.

Rometty will assume the post on 1 January, 2012, at which time she will also take a seat on the IBM board of directors.

The present SVP and group executive for sales, marketing and strategy takes over the corner office of Samuel J. Palmisano, who will remain chairman of the board.

"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," said Palmisano.

"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."

Rometty will lead IBM into its second century, according to Big Blue, and will help the company push into growth markets like the cloud and business analytics, and make the most of Watson, its Jeopardy winning super computer.

"There is no greater privilege in business than to be asked to lead IBM, especially at this moment," said Rometty, who joined IBM in 1981 as a software engineer. µ