29 Facts About Ginni Rometty

Virginia "Ginni" Rometty was born on July 29,1957 and is an American business executive who was executive chairman of IBM after stepping down as CEO on April 1,2020.

Ginni Rometty was previously chairman, president and CEO of IBM, becoming the first woman to head the company.

Ginni Rometty retired from IBM on December 31,2020, after a near-40 year career there.

Ginni Rometty's tenure was met by fierce criticism relating to executive compensation bonuses, layoffs, outsourcing, and presiding over 24 consecutive quarters of revenue decline.

Ginni Rometty was born on July 29,1957, in Chicago, Illinois, as Virginia Marie Nicosia.

Ginni Rometty's parents divorced and her father left when she was fifteen years old, and her mother subsequently took on multiple jobs to support the family while Rometty looked after the household in the evenings.

Ginni Rometty began attending Northwestern University in Illinois in 1975 on a scholarship from General Motors, where she interned between her junior and senior years.

Ginni Rometty was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, eventually becoming its president.

Ginni Rometty graduated with high honors from the Robert R McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University in 1979, receiving a bachelor's degree in computer science and electrical engineering.

Ginni Rometty has received honorary doctoral degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Northwestern University.

Ginni Rometty received an honorary degree from North Carolina State University.

Ginni Rometty spent the 1990s working in sales, and by the late 1990s was helping clients such as Prudential Financial, Inc with their internet features.

Ginni Rometty was a managing partner at IBM Business Consulting Services, Inc and general manager of Insurance Industry Group.

Ginni Rometty received the Carl Sloane Award 2006 from the Association of Management Consulting Firms.

Ginni Rometty became senior vice president and group executive for sales, marketing and strategy in 2009, focusing on the company's "fast-growing analytics unit".

Ginni Rometty became president and CEO on January 1,2012, taking on the additional role of IBM chairman on October 1,2012, when Palmisano retired.

Ginni Rometty had IBM spend $8.5 billion acquiring around 30 companies between 2012 and 2015, and by 2016 she had overseen the divestment of about $7 billion in commoditized assets such as chip manufacturing.

On January 30,2020, it was announced that Ginni Rometty would be stepping down as IBM's CEO to be replaced by Arvind Krishna.

Ginni Rometty remained executive chairman until December 31,2020, when she was replaced by Arvind Krishna.

Ginni Rometty remains on the board of overseers and board of managers for the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and since 2013 she has been a council member at the Latin America Conservation Council.

Ginni Rometty serves on the Council on Foreign Relations and is on the board of trustees of her alma mater Northwestern University, where she was commencement speaker for the graduating class of 2015.

Ginni Rometty was a member of the White House's Business Advisory Panel for much of 2017, before the panel dissolved itself that August.

Ginni Rometty serves as the co-chair of the Aspen Institute's Cyber Group, a member of the advisory board of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, and a member of the Singapore Economic Development Board International Advisory Council.

Ginni Rometty was named to the Time 100 list in 2012, and in 2014 Rometty was featured in the PBS documentary The Boomer List.

Ginni Rometty was named to Forbes magazine's "World's 100 Most Powerful People" in 2014, and she ranked No 11 on the 2016 Forbes list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women.

Ginni Rometty was named the sixth most important person in tech by Time magazine in March 2018.

Ginni Rometty was criticized by investors for 22 consecutive quarters of revenue decline between 2012 and the summer of 2017, and by IBM employees for accepting pay bonuses during times of layoffs and offshoring.

In May 2019, Ginni Rometty received the Edison Achievement Award for her commitment to innovation throughout her career.

Ginni Rometty goes to Broadway shows and participates in scuba diving as a hobby.