Ginni Rometty Biography

Virginia Marie "Ginni" Rometty (born July 29, 1957) is an American business executive. She is the current Chairwoman and CEO of IBM, and the first woman to head the company. Prior to becoming president and CEO in January 2012 she held the positions of Senior Vice President and Group Executive for Sales, Marketing, and Strategy at IBM. She has been named to Fortune magazine's "50 Most Powerful Women in Business" for eight consecutive years, ranking #1 for 2012, and she was ranked tenth on Forbes magazine's "World's 100 Most Powerful Women" in 2014. She was also named to the Time 100 in 2012, and was included in the 50 Most Influential list of Bloomberg Markets magazine in September 2012.

Early life and education

Rometty graduated from the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University in 1979 with high honors, receiving a bachelor's degree in computer science and electrical engineering. Rometty was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, eventually serving as its president.

Career

After graduation in 1979, Rometty went to work for General Motors Institute; in 1981, she joined IBM as a systems engineer in its Detroit office. She joined IBM's Consulting Group in 1991. In 2002, she "championed the purchase of the big business consulting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, for $3.5 billion." Rometty became senior vice president and group executive for sales, marketing and strategy in 2009. Rometty is "credited with spearheading IBM's growth strategy by getting the company into the cloud computing and analytics businesses. She was also at the helm of readying Watson, the Jeopardy! playing computer, for commercial use."

On October 25, 2011, IBM announced that she was to be the company's next president and CEO, with Sam Palmisano stepping down but retaining his position as chairman. Rometty's appointment marks the first time a woman has been CEO of IBM. Regarding her promotion, Palmisano stated, "Ginni got it because she deserved it... It"?s got zero to do with progressive social policies."

On September 26, 2012, IBM announced that Rometty was taking on the added role of chairman of IBM, as Samuel Palmisano prepared to retire at the end of 2012. Rometty commenced her duty as Chairwoman and CEO of IBM on October 1, 2012.

Boards and honors

Rometty is on the Board of Trustees of her alma mater Northwestern University; the Board of Overseers of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; a council member at the Latin America Conservation Council, a subsidiary of The Nature Conservancy; and on The Deming Cup's committee at Columbia Business School, which recognizes individuals for operational excellence. She also served on the Board of Directors of AIG from 2006 until 2009.

In 2014, Rometty was featured in the PBS documentary The Boomer List.

Also in 2014, Rometty became the third female member of the Augusta National golf club.

Personal life

Rometty is married to Mark Anthony Rometty, a principal investor in the Bam Oil Company, and the couple has no children.