IBM Announces New CEO, is This Good For Blockchain?

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IBM CEO, Ginni Rometty, is stepping down after 8 years of service. She is being replaced by executive Arvind Krishna. Rometty has been a great supporter of the distributed ledger technology (DLT), but Krishna might take the company’s blockchain projects to another level.


Krishna Has Played Important Role in Blockchain Development

Blockchain has become one of IBM’s priorities under Rometty’s tenure, but Krishna will continue to encourage the development in this direction. In fact, Krishna has had more direct involvement with the DLT than Rometty, suggesting that the technology might receive even more attention.

Krishna, who is now 57, is currently IBM’s senior vice president for cloud and cognitive software. According to his profile on IBM’s official website, he also leads the company’s overall strategy in core and emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, quantum computing, cloud, and nanotechnology.

Speaking about Krishna’s appointment, Rometty said that he was a “brilliant technologist who has played a significant role in developing our key technologies,” mentioning blockchain among others.

Rometty has been the company’s president, executive chairman, and CEO since 2012. During her leadership, the stock price of IBM has declined by over 25%, while the S&P 500 index, which comprises 500 of the largest American companies, rose by 160%. Consequently, the share price surged about 5% on Thursday after the company announced the reshuffle. The change will take effect on April 6.

Jim Whitehurst, former CEO of Red Hat, will take the role of IBM president. The tech giant acquired Red Hat last year for over $30 billion.

New CEO Has Publicly Endorsed Blockchain

Arvind Krishna has praised the technology publicly on several occasions. In 2016, when relatively few executives belied in the transformative potential of blockchain, Krishna said that at the WIRED Business Conference that the technology would reduce banking corruption and money laundering.