New Female CEO of IBM as the Glass Ceiling Shatters

I am VERY impressed by the announcement that IBM has selected as its new CEO, to start in 2012, a female, and one with a degree in computer science from Northwestern, no less!

This is fantastic news.

According to The New York Times: Virginia M. Rometty, a senior vice president at I.B.M., will be the company’s next chief executive, the directors announced on Tuesday. She will succeed Samuel J. Palmisano, who will remain as chairman, at the start of next year.

The selection of Ms. Rometty for the top job at I.B.M. will make her one of the highest-profile women executives in corporate America, joining a small group of women chief executives that includes Ursula Burns of Xerox, Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo, Ellen J. Kullman of DuPont and Meg Whitman of Hewlett-Packard.

And, what is also very exciting, given the focus now on analytics by many of our professional societies, including INFORMS, is that Ms. Rometty has pushed to expand the company’s fast-growing analytics unit, which uses clever software to sift through the vast amounts of data inside companies, on the Web and social networks, to help clients look for sales and cost-saving opportunities.

Great news on all counts!