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On the day IBM announced she'd be stepping down, exiting CEO Ginni Rometty called Arvind Krishna "the right CEO for the next era" at the company. "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," she said. Indeed, Krishna has spent his entire professional career at IBM. The electrical engineering doctorate, who has more than a dozen co-author credits on technology patents, started at the company's Watson Research labs in 1990. He stayed there for nearly two decades and later served as head of IBM's cloud and cognitive software division.

IBM is in the middle of a company transformation. With CEO Arvind Krishna and President Jim Whitehurst at the helm for a year, the company is going all-in on the cloud with its Red Hat and other investments and getting in a better posture for growth and focus with its recent Kyndryl spin-out. At the same time, the company continues to create leading edge research output in hardware, software and the cloud and creating some very innovative products simultaneously. IBM made many announcements prior to THINK. The company announced the world's first 2nm nanosheet device here, check out an interview I had with IBM Cloud leader Howard Boville here, see Z mainframe as a service here, check out Steve McDowell's analysis of Spectrum Fusion here, and see Paul Smith Goodson's coverage of Qiskit Metal for quantum computing here.

During IBM's Think 2021 event, the company discussed how hybrid cloud operations and artificial intelligence (AI) are essential to its strategy and the digital transformation of its customers. CEO Arvind Krishna spoke about how these elements are helping customers to emerge from the pandemic as more resilient, agile businesses. The event underlined many aspects of IBM's strategy, including its intention to become a platform company, underpinned by its Red Hat OpenShift and systems infrastructure, Watson AI and automation solutions, and a partner community that brings industry-specific solutions. But AI and automation stood tallest this year, indicating that IBM believes these converging areas represent its biggest prospects for growth in the coming years. Expectedly, AI permeated almost every session, but automation took a more prominent role this year as it forms an increasingly important theme for IBM.

IBM Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna sent the following letter to President-elect Joe Biden congratulating him on his election and outlining policy initiatives where IBM seeks to work with the incoming administration. We also congratulate Vice President-elect Kamala Harris for her historic, groundbreaking election. In your speech on Saturday evening, you spoke about bringing the country together to tackle the monumental challenges our nation faces. IBM is committed to working with your Administration to do its part. We share your vision of using science to control the virus, widening economic opportunities, achieving racial justice and combatting the climate crisis.

International Business Machines (IBM), one of the most iconic names among American corporations, said it will split the company into two by the end of next year in order to focus on the growing and higher-margin cloud computing and artificial intelligence markets. IBM said it will spin off its legacy infrastructure services unit as a yet unnamed public company (NewCo), while the other company, the "new" IBM, will largely be engaged in the cloud and artificial intelligence businesses. IBM Chief Financial Officer James Kavanaugh told Reuters that the new company (NewCo) will have about 90,000 employees and its executive structure will be decided over the next few months. IBM said it expects to record almost $5 billion in expenses related to the separation. After the separation is completed, each company's dividend policy will be determined by its respective board of directors.

Mourners pay respects to George Floyd in Houston; reaction and analysis on'The Five.' IBM has quit the facial recognition technology business, citing concerns that it can be used for mass surveillance and racial profiling. The move comes amid ongoing protests following the death of George Floyd on May 25--while in police custody in Minneapolis--that have thrust racial injustice and police monitoring technology into the spotlight. The tech giant's CEO Arvind Krishna explained IBM's decision in a letter sent to U.S. lawmakers Monday. "IBM no longer offers general purpose IBM facial recognition or analysis software," he wrote. "IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and Principles of Trust and Transparency."

Digital transformation using artificial intelligence and hybrid cloud has accelerated amid the COVID-19 pandemic and these new technologies can play an important role in helping companies gain competitive advantage, IBM Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna said on Tuesday. Speaking during a keynote at the IBM's Think Digital 2020 conference, Krishna, who took charge last month, said the pace of adoption of transformation journeys by enterprises has been "compacted" into months. He noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has emphasised on the "critical importance of technology solutions that enable speed, flexibility, insight and innovation". "They determine how quickly you can pivot to new market opportunities, how well you serve your clients, how much you can scale. And how fast you can respond to a crisis, like the one we are facing today," he said.

Every time a company changes its CEO, many changes always follow. Some of those changes are positive. I expect this to happen at IBM as Ginni Rometty steps down and Arvind Krishna steps up as CEO. Let's take a look at the challenges he faces and what we can expect as investors, customers and workers. I have been following IBM for quite a long time.

Indian-origin technology executive Arvind Krishna has been named as the chief executive officer of American IT giant International Business Machines (IBM). The IBM Board of Directors elected Krishna as company CEO and member of the Board of Directors effective April 6 2020. Krishna is currently IBM senior vice president for cloud and cognitive software. "I am thrilled and humbled to be elected as the next chief executive officer of IBM," says Krishna. "IBM has such talented people and technology that we can bring together to help our clients solve their toughest problems," he added. Arvind Krishna's story is similar to those of many Indians in the US tech industry -- he finished a degree from IIT Kanpur, before moving to the US to complete his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.