IBM’s board of directors has elected Virginia M. Rometty chairman of the board, effective Oct. 1, expanding her role as head of the company.
Rometty succeeds Samuel J. Palmisano, who is stepping down from the board effective Oct. 1. Palmisano will become senior advisor to the company until he retires on Dec. 1. As of Oct. 1, Rometty’s title will be IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer.
Rometty, 55, is currently IBM’s president and chief executive officer. She succeeded Palmisano as IBM’s ninth CEO in January after holding senior leadership positions in IBM’s services, sales, strategy and marketing units. Rometty led the successful integration of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting — the largest acquisition in professional services history, building a team of more than 100,000 business consultants and services experts. She became a director of IBM in January.
Palmisano, 61, became IBM chief executive officer in 2002 and chairman of the board in 2003. During his tenure, IBM transformed its product and services portfolio, exiting commoditizing businesses, including PCs, printers and hard disk drives, and greatly increased investments in analytics, cloud computing and other high-value businesses and technologies. He has overseen the transformation of IBM from a multinational into a globally integrated enterprise. During Palmisano’s tenure as CEO, IBM created more than $100 billion of total shareholder value.