I am excited to announce a series of senior leadership changes that take effect immediately.

First, Tom Rosamilia has decided to retire by June 30, 2023. Until then, he will continue working on the various client and partner engagements he leads and will also work on special projects for me as SVP and senior advisor. During his almost 40 years with IBM, Tom has been a key leader with a strong track record of success across software and systems, holding many high-profile leadership roles and delivering outstanding business results. I want to thank Tom for his many years of dedicated service to IBM.

With Tom’s retirement, Rob Thomas will now lead the software segment of our business in addition to his current role and becomes SVP, software and Chief Commercial Officer. He will be supported by three new leaders: 

Kareem Yusuf has been named SVP, product management and growth for the software portfolio. He will also be responsible for our product led growth initiative. Kareem’s vast technical experience includes leading our AI applications business with a focus on enabling clients to leverage intelligent insights to transform their operations. He also leads our sustainability software business and the corporate environmental affairs team.

Dinesh Nirmal is now SVP, products for software. His new organization will be supported by the user insights delivered by Kareem’s team. Dinesh has a long, seasoned history of engineering leadership. He brings his strong leadership in data and analytics transformation, leading strategy and execution for technologies spanning AI-powered automation, machine learning, analytics at the edge, open source, and database.

Sebastian Krause is now SVP and Chief Revenue Officer, leading product and technical sales, sales enablement, client success, and digital sales organizations. In this role, he will also lead our geography sales, global industries, and client engineering organizations. Sebastian has shown a dedication and strong ability to create differentiating value for our clients. Most recently, he led the transformation of our technology go-to-market organization.

Kareem, Dinesh and Sebastian will all report to Rob and become members of the Executive Leadership Team (ELT). These changes help drive greater alignment across our software and go-to-market efforts to further our growth strategy. The software team will focus more on engineering and product management, with the various branches that make up this segment being more connected and working better together. The technology sales team will continue to play a critical role in driving sales for our infrastructure segment.

In addition to these changes, Howard Boville, SVP, IBM Cloud platform, is expanding his scope to also lead IBM Technology Lifecycle Services (TLS). As part of the simplification of our infrastructure segment, Howard will now report to Ric Lewis, who is now SVP, infrastructure.

Paul Papas has been promoted to SVP, IBM Consulting, Americas. He continues reporting to John Granger, SVP of IBM Consulting, and will join the ELT. Paul will bring his stellar leadership experience and strategic and operational expertise to his new role. In this position, he will continue his leadership of the Americas business.

I’m also pleased to welcome Alex Stern back to IBM where he began his professional career. Alex will be SVP, strategy and mergers & acquisitions. He will also lead the investor relations organization. Alex has a wealth of knowledge about the technology landscape and is joining us from Lazard, where he most recently was president. He held several senior leadership roles during his 28 years with Lazard, including chief executive officer of their financial advisory business, chief operating officer, and global head of strategy. While at Lazard he also worked closely with IBM and was a key advisor on a range of transactions including the acquisition of Red Hat and the spin of Kyndryl. He will begin his new role on January 23, 2023, and will be a member of the ELT. Alex will report to me on strategy and Jim Kavanaugh, SVP and Chief Financial Officer, on other aspects of his role.

These senior leadership changes are crucial as we strive to build a better, simpler, more focused, and more productive company. I have full confidence in the capabilities of these leaders, and I am excited to see what they will achieve in their new roles. Please join me in congratulating them.