New IBM CEO Arvind Krishna described as 'brilliant, right person to lead'

Krishna said IBM has such talented people and technology that we can bring together to help our clients solve their toughest problems.

Business Standard : Indian-origin technology executive Arvind Krishna has been elected Chief Executive Officer of American IT giant IBM after a "world-class succession process", succeeding Virginia Rometty, who described him as the right CEO for the next era at IBM and well-positioned" to lead the company into the cloud and cognitive era.

The IBM Board of Directors elected Krishna as company CEO and member of the Board of Directors effective April 6. Krishna is currently IBM Senior Vice President for Cloud and Cognitive Software and will succeed Rometty, 62 who will retire after almost 40 years with the company at the end of the year.

Krishna, 57, had joined IBM in 1990 and has an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

I am thrilled and humbled to be elected as the next Chief Executive Officer of IBM, and appreciate the confidence that Ginni and the Board have placed in me," Krishna said in a press statement released by IBM.

Krishna said IBM has such talented people and technology that we can bring together to help our clients solve their toughest problems.

I am looking forward to working with IBMers, Red Hatters and clients around the world at this unique time of fast-paced change in the IT industry. We have great opportunities ahead to help our clients advance the transformation of their business while also remaining the global leader in the trusted stewardship of technology," Krishna said.

Krishna's appointment as head of the global IT giant adds to the growing list of Indian-origin executives at the helm of some of the biggest multinational companies. Krishna joins the club that includes Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga, PepsiCo's former CEO Indra Nooyi and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen.

Rometty, who had been IBM's Chairman, President and CEO, will continue as Executive Chairman of the Board and serve through the end of the year, when she will retire. She described Krishna as the right CEO for the next era at IBM who is well-positioned to lead IBM and its clients into the cloud and cognitive era."

Women shouldn't think of themselves as second-class citizens: Indra Nooyi

Nooyi, 64, was on Sunday inducted into the prestigious National Portrait Gallery along with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Frances Arnold, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Earth, Wind and Fire.

Business Standard : Women must not see themselves as second class citizens and know that they too have arrived on the scene, Indra Nooyi, who has broken many glass ceilings as a businesswoman, said on Sunday.

It does not matter, where you're born and what your heritage was, I think the US gives you a great opportunity to be anybody you want to be as long as you work hard, you contribute positively to whatever you work on and in and you have integrity, Nooyi told PTI in an interview.

Nooyi, 64, was on Sunday inducted into the prestigious National Portrait Gallery along with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Frances Arnold, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Earth, Wind and Fire.

The induction ceremony was marked with a star-studded gala that included former First Lady Michelle Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, among others.

The first-ever Indian American to be included in the portrait gallery, Nooyi said it sends the message to the people that the US is a great country to make your future in.

I think going forward, people like us paved the path for women to be viewed as equal, powerful and contributing as anybody else. And, so women should not feel like second class citizens. They should know they too have arrived on the scene. And their contributions will also be noticed irrespective of your background, she said.

I think that's the key thing. To be an Indian American, to be included among business leaders in the portrait gallery basically says, here is a country that only cares about your contribution, not necessarily where you came from and who you are, she said.

It is a pretty special day today. Special because I've just begun to understand the value of the portrait gallery. I didn't know a portrait gallery existed because I had never been to one. So, I came to visit this gallery about a year ago when they informed me about this. I was simply blown away by the fact that such a gallery existed, that portraiture is a way to tell the story of the country and all the people who contributed to it, she said.

The Portrait Gallery, she said, tells a beautiful story.

It's not just a picture, it tells a story. If you go downstairs to the portrait gallery, there's a room that is now showcasing the women's suffragette movement. It's a fantastic story of how the whole thing evolved, she said.