IBM Chief Executive Rometty Adds 'Chairman' To Her Titles

IBM said late Tuesday that the company's board of directors had elected Rometty its new chairman, succeeding Palmisano who became chairman in 2003. Rometty joined the IBM board when she became CEO – the ninth CEO in IBM's history and its first woman chief executive.

Palmisano, 61, who relinquished the CEO office to Rometty on Jan. 1 after 10 years, is stepping down from the board on Oct. 1. He will serve as a senior advisor to the company until Dec. 1 when he will officially retire from IBM.

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Rometty, 55, is a 30-year veteran of IBM who has held a number of senior management posts in sales, services, marketing and strategy. At the time she was promoted to CEO, she was the IT giant's global sales leader.

One of her biggest accomplishments, while serving as senior vice president of IBM Global Business Services, was successfully integrating PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting with the rest of IBM's service operations after IBM acquired PwC in 2002.

In February, Rometty received a warm welcome from channel partners at the IBM PartnerWorld Leadership Conference where she pledged her commitment to devote more resources for co-marketing and skills development programs to help partners expand into new IT markets.

PUBLISHED SEPT. 25, 2012