Ginni Rometty: Former CEO of IBM

  • Highlights:
    • Former Chairman, President, and CEO of IBM
    • Co-Founder & Co-Chair of OneTen - a coalition committed to upskill, hire, and promote one million Black Americans by 2030
    • Author of WSJ Bestseller, 'Good Power: Leading Positive Change in Our Lives, Work, and World'
    • Named Fortune’s #1 Most Powerful Woman - three years in a row
Reading time: 2 min
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  • Travels from: Washington, DC
  • **Fee range: On Request

Keynote Topics

Former IBM CEO GINNI ROMETTY weaves personal stories with tactical leadership advice as she discusses her journey overcoming childhood struggles, rising from entry-level engineer to IBM’s first woman Chairman and CEO, transforming the iconic company’s foundation, advising global leaders, and advancing today’s SkillsFirst movement.

In this inspiring discussion, Rometty offers a blueprint for how each of us can drive meaningful change in positive ways—Good Power—in our lives, our organizations, and society.

 

Under GINNI ROMETTY’s global leadership as the first women Chairman and CEO of IBM, the company transformed its foundation while achieving record results in diversity and inclusion.

Rometty is often asked if there was a silver bullet to IBM’s track record. Her answer: diversity is a number, but inclusion is a choice we make again and again.

In this conversation, she shares new and proven approaches leaders can use to source new pools of talent and build more diverse and inclusive workforces. Why? Because it makes companies more competitive on the world stage, and is the right thing to do.

Technology has become so pervasive that even companies that do not make or sell tech are considered technology companies. The onus is on leaders in every industry and country to practice good tech, because if societies are to flourish in our digital age, all people must believe technology will lead them to a brighter future, not a darker place.

In this conversation, former IBM Chairman and CEO GINNI ROMETTY speaks from experience about how every leader can steward good tech by advocating for issues such as security, privacy, and diversity.

From being one of a few women in engineering school, to becoming the first woman Chairman and CEO of IBM, to being No. 1 on Fortune magazine’s Most Powerful Women in Business list three years in a row, GINNI ROMETTY has paved new paths for women around the world in STEM, tech, and business.

In this discussion, she talks about key moments that shaped her, as well as timeless truths that help elevate all women, from the need for role models to the responsibility all women have to be in service of each other.

Ginni Rometty is a leader, innovator, and convener who believes that how we work and lead is as important as what we achieve. As the ninth Chairman, President, and CEO of IBM, Ginni transformed the 100-year-old company, reinventing 50 percent of its portfolio, building a $25B hybrid cloud business, and establishing IBM’s leadership in AI and quantum computing.

She drove record results in diversity and inclusion and supported the explosive growth of an innovative high school program, P-TECH, to prepare the workforce of the future in more than twenty-eight countries. Ginni is the author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Good Power: Leading Positive Change in Our Lives, Work, and World (Harvard Business Review Press).

In the book, as she does in sought-after events, Ginni shares milestones from her life and career while redefining power as a way to drive meaningful change in positive ways for ourselves, our organizations, and for the many, not just the few – a concept she calls “good power.”

Through her work with the Business Roundtable, Rometty helped redefine the purpose of the corporation. She has been named Fortune’s #1 Most Powerful Woman three years in a row, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and has been honored with the designation of Officier in the French Légion d’Honneur.

Today, Rometty serves on multiple boards including J.P. Morgan Chase, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and co-chairs OneTen, a coalition committed to upskilling, hiring, and promoting one million Black Americans without four-year degrees by 2030 into family-sustaining jobs and careers.

She offers unparalleled insights on leadership, organizational and societal transformation, DEI, the future of work and education, and more, and is in-demand for events with groups including the World Economic Forum at Davos, The Milken Institute, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit, the Consumer Electronics Show, and Grace Hopper, to name a few.

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