WCW Lady Boss Weekly Feature: Ginni Rometty

WCW

Happy Woman Crush Wednesday! As we celebrate Women's History Month, this weekly lady boss feature will focus on the profiles, stories, and interviews of women entrepreneurs and business leaders. Our goal is to connect and inspire like-minded women across all industries.

This week’s lady boss feature is Ginni Rometty, former Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of IBM. Ginni is the first woman to head the company. She joined IBM in 1981 as a systems engineer before working her way up. Ginni became the CEO of IBM in 2012 and retired form the company as Executive Chairman last 2020. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and electrical engineering from Northwestern University, where she later was awarded an honorary degree.

During her tenure in IBM, Ginni made bold changes to reposition IBM for the future by investing in high value segments of IT and optimizing the company’s portfolio. She has put cognitive computing at the center of IBM’s strategy, built a $21 billion hybrid cloud business and established IBM’s leadership in AI, quantum computing and blockchain. Under Ginni’s leadership, IBM acquired 65 companies including Red Hat, the largest acquisition in the company’s history, placing IBM in a position to compete with Amazon and Microsoft in cloud computing. She was the industry’s leading voice on technology ethics and established IBM as the model of responsible stewardship in the digital age.

Ginni is also the co-chair of OneTen, an organization that connects the power of companies to upskill, hire and promote one million Black Americans into family-sustaining jobs with opportunities for advancement. She serves on the Council on Foreign Relations, the Board of Trustees of Northwestern University, the Board of Trustees of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and the Board of Directors of JPMorgan Chase. She has been named to Bloomberg's 50 Most Influential People in the World, Time's 20 Most Important People in Tech, Fortune's 50 Most Powerful Women in Business for 10 consecutive years, and Forbes' America's Top 50 Women in Tech.

If you're interested in knowing more about Ginni Rometty, watch the full interview below by Stanford Graduate School of Business.