Ginni Rometty facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ginni Rometty
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| Born |
Virginia Nicosia
July 29, 1957 |
| Education | Northwestern University (BS) |
| Spouse(s) | Mark Rometty (1979–present) |
Virginia "Ginni" Rometty (born July 29, 1957) is a very important American business leader. She is best known for being the first woman to lead IBM, a huge and famous technology company. She was the chairman, president, and CEO of IBM.
Ginni Rometty worked at IBM for almost 40 years! She started as a systems engineer in 1981. Later, she became the head of global sales, marketing, and strategy. She stepped down as CEO on April 1, 2020, and retired from IBM at the end of 2020.
As CEO, Ginni Rometty helped IBM focus on new and exciting areas. These included analytics (understanding data), cloud computing (storing and using data over the internet), and cognitive computing systems (like artificial intelligence).
During her time as CEO, Ginni Rometty received many awards. She was named one of the "50 Most Influential People in the World" by Bloomberg. Fortune magazine called her one of the "50 Most Powerful Women in Business." She was also recognized by Time and Forbes for her leadership in technology.
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Early Life and Education
Ginni Rometty was born on July 29, 1957, in Chicago, Illinois. Her birth name was Virginia Nicosia. She grew up near Chicago and was the oldest of four children in an Italian-American family. When she was fifteen, her parents divorced, and her father left. Her mother worked many jobs to support the family, and Ginni helped take care of the household in the evenings.
In 1975, Ginni Rometty started attending Northwestern University in Illinois. She received a scholarship from General Motors, where she also worked as an intern. She was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and even became its president.
She graduated with high honors in 1979. She earned a bachelor's degree in computer science and electrical engineering. Later, she received honorary degrees from several universities, including Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Northwestern University.
Her Career Journey at IBM
Starting Out: Engineer and Sales
After graduating in 1979, Ginni Rometty first worked for General Motors Institute. She was responsible for developing computer applications and systems.
In 1981, she joined IBM as a systems analyst and systems engineer. For her first ten years at IBM, she worked in technical roles. She helped clients in different industries like insurance and banking. She quickly moved into management jobs. By the late 1990s, she was helping companies like Prudential Financial, Inc. with their internet features. She joined IBM's Consulting Group in 1991.
Leading Big Changes at IBM
In 2002, Ginni Rometty played a key role in a big deal for IBM. She helped IBM buy the consulting business of PricewaterhouseCoopers for $3.5 billion. This was a huge purchase that helped IBM grow its services business. Ginni Rometty was then given the important job of combining PricewaterhouseCoopers' consultants with IBM. This was seen as a major opportunity for her at IBM.
From 2005 to 2009, she was a senior vice president at IBM Global Business Services. She also held other important roles, like general manager of IBM Global Services in the Americas. In 2006, she received the Carl Sloane Award for her work in management consulting.
In 2007, Ginni Rometty and other IBM leaders created a five-year plan called the "2015 Roadmap." This plan aimed to shift IBM's focus away from hardware (like computers) and more towards software and services.
She became senior vice president for sales, marketing, and strategy in 2009. She focused on IBM's fast-growing analytics unit. She also helped develop IBM's growth-markets unit, which focused on new markets like Brazil and Vietnam. By 2011, she was recognized for leading IBM into cloud computing and analytics. She also helped prepare Watson, the computer that won Jeopardy!, for commercial use.
Becoming IBM's CEO
On October 25, 2011, IBM announced that Ginni Rometty would be the company's next president and CEO. She became the ninth chief executive in IBM's history and the first woman to hold this top position. She officially started as president and CEO on January 1, 2012. She also became IBM chairman on October 1, 2012.
As CEO, Ginni Rometty wanted to move IBM away from less profitable businesses. She saw big data and analytics as IBM's "next big growth machine." In 2014, she made a partnership with Apple to create apps for IBM's business customers. Later that year, she also partnered with SAP for cloud computing and with Twitter for data analytics. In 2015, she made a deal with Box.
Between 2012 and 2015, IBM spent $8.5 billion buying about 30 companies under her leadership. By 2016, she had also sold off about $7 billion in less important assets, like chip manufacturing.
In May 2017, reports showed that Ginni Rometty had successfully moved IBM into higher-growth areas like artificial intelligence. In January 2018, IBM reported its first increase in revenue since 2012, with growth in areas like data, blockchain, and the cloud. By 2018, she noted that about half of IBM's patents were in new technologies like AI, cloud computing, and cybersecurity.
However, during her time as CEO, IBM's overall revenue declined. On January 30, 2020, it was announced that Ginni Rometty would step down as IBM's CEO. She remained executive chairman until December 31, 2020.
Boards and Committees
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Ginni Rometty has been a director at IBM since 2012. She has also been involved in IBM groups that support women in technology and leadership.
She serves on the board of overseers and board of managers for the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Since 2013, she has been a council member for the Latin America Conservation Council. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Ginni Rometty is on the board of trustees of her old university, Northwestern University. She was the commencement speaker for their graduating class in 2015. In November 2017, she co-chaired the WEF Davos meeting.
She also helps lead the Aspen Institute’s Cyber Group. She is an advisory board member for Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management. In May 2020, she was elected to the board of JPMorgan Chase.
Personal Life
Virginia Nicosia married Mark Anthony Rometty in 1979. He is an investor. They do not have children. They live in New York and Bonita Springs, Florida.
Ginni Rometty enjoys going to Broadway shows. She also likes scuba diving as a hobby. In 2014, she became one of the first female members of the Augusta National Golf Club.
See also
In Spanish: Ginni Rometty para niños
