Arvind Krishna: IBM raises IITian Arvind Krishna to CEO effective April

Bengaluru: IBM said its board of directors had appointed Arvind Krishna as chief executive officer, effective April 6, making him the latest Indian who will hold that rank at a global technology giant.

IBM said current CEO Ginni Rometty would continue as executive chairman of the board through the end of 2020, at which point she would retire after almost 40 years with the company.

Krishna is currently senior vice president for cloud and cognitive software and was a principal architect of the company’s acquisitions of Red Hat.

“Arvind is the right CEO for the next era at IBM. He is a brilliant technologist who has played a significant role in developing our key technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud, quantum, computing and Blockchain. He is also a superb operational leader,” CEO Rometty said in a statement

Krishna studied at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and has a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois. He joined IBM in 1990.

IBM also appointed James Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat, as President at the company, effective April 6.