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Arvind Krishna

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Overview

Arvind Krishna
Born (1962-11-23) 23 November 1962 (age 63)
West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh, India
CitizenshipIndia; United States
EducationElectrical engineering
Alma materIndian Institute of Technology Kanpur (B.Tech); University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Ph.D.)
Occupation(s)Business executive; computer engineer
EmployerIBM
Known forLeading IBM's shift toward hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence; architecting the acquisition of Red Hat
TitleChairman and chief executive officer, IBM
TermCEO: 2020–present; chairman: 2021–present
PredecessorGinni Rometty
Board member ofIBM; Northrop Grumman; Federal Reserve Bank of New York; U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum; Economic Club of New York
Children2
AwardsDistinguished alumnus awards from IIT Kanpur and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; CRN Most Influential Executive (2021)
Websitehttps://www.ibm.com/investor/governance/arvind-krishna

📘 Arvind Krishna (born 23 November 1962) is an Indian-American business executive and computer engineer who has served as chief executive officer of International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) since April 2020 and as chairman of the board since January 2021.[1][2] Over more than three decades at IBM he has moved from research scientist to senior executive, becoming closely associated with the company's strategic pivot toward hybrid cloud computing and artificial intelligence and with its acquisition of open-source software company Red Hat.[3][4]

🌍 Background and trajectory. Born in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh in a Telugu-speaking military family, Krishna grew up moving between Indian army towns as his father, Major General Vinod Krishna, rotated postings, while his mother, Aarathi, worked with organisations supporting army widows; the experience instilled a blend of discipline, adaptability and social awareness that later shaped his management style.[3][5] After studying electrical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and completing a doctorate in electrical engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he joined IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in 1990 rather than pursue an academic career, beginning a long association with the company that would culminate in the top job.[3][1]

☁️ IBM transformation agenda. As chief executive, Krishna has concentrated IBM's strategy on hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence, overseeing the 2021 spin-off of its managed infrastructure services business as Kyndryl, increasing the weight of software and consulting in group revenues, and pushing new platforms such as the Watsonx AI suite and IBM's quantum computing roadmap.[6][7] Under his leadership the company has returned to modest revenue growth, improved profit margins, paid down debt taken on to finance the Red Hat acquisition and delivered significantly better shareholder returns than in the years preceding his appointment, even as it continues to lag the fastest-growing cloud competitors.[4][8]

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Early life and education

🎓 Military family and early years. Krishna was born on 23 November 1962 in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, India, into a Telugu-speaking household headed by his father, Indian Army officer Vinod Krishna, who rose to the rank of major general, and his mother, Aarathi, who worked with groups supporting army widows.[3][5] Growing up in a succession of cantonment towns across India, he experienced frequent school changes and exposure to varied cultures, an itinerant upbringing later credited with developing the resilience and openness that would prove useful in global corporate leadership.[3][9]

🏫 Schooling across India. Krishna attended schools in several Indian states, notably Stanes Anglo Indian School in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, and St. Joseph's Academy in Dehradun, reflecting the succession of postings in his father's military career and giving him early familiarity with different linguistic and social environments.[3][5] Former colleagues have later remarked that this early mobility contributed to his comfort leading diverse, geographically dispersed teams in his corporate life.[9]

📐 Engineering studies in India. In 1980 he entered the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, one of India's most selective engineering schools, to study electrical engineering, graduating with a Bachelor of Technology degree in 1985.[3] His student years coincided with the early spread of computer science and networking in India, and contemporaries recall him as a strong student with a particular interest in systems and communications technologies.[3][5]

🔬 Doctoral research in the United States. Seeking advanced training, Krishna moved to the United States for graduate study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1991 for work in computer networks and distributed systems.[3][1] Both IIT Kanpur and the University of Illinois later recognised him with distinguished alumni awards, underlining his continued engagement with academic research and education.[10][3] During this period he also decided against pursuing a full-time academic career, opting instead to join IBM's research laboratories in 1990, a decision that set the course for his professional life.[3][1]

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Career at IBM

🧪 Research scientist at IBM. Krishna joined IBM in 1990 as a research staff member at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in New York, where for nearly eighteen years he worked on database systems, security, high-performance computing and networking technologies, publishing widely and co-authoring around fifteen patents.[1][10] He has been credited with helping to build IBM's early capabilities in emerging areas such as cloud infrastructure and security, and he served on editorial boards of technical journals from organisations such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Association for Computing Machinery.[3][9]

🏭 Shift into systems and software leadership. In the late 2000s Krishna moved out of pure research into line management, taking a general manager role in IBM's Systems and Technology Group in 2009 and later leading its Information Management software unit, where revenues reportedly grew by around 50 percent under his oversight as the company expanded its database and analytics offerings.[10][3] The transition marked the point at which he began to combine technical expertise with responsibility for profit-and-loss performance, a combination that would define his later executive career.[9]

☁️ Cloud, cognitive software and emerging technologies. Krishna was appointed senior vice president and director of IBM Research in 2015 and, in 2017, senior vice president for Cloud and Cognitive Software, putting him in charge of the business units responsible for IBM's cloud computing, artificial intelligence and data platform strategies.[1][10] In these roles he championed areas such as hybrid cloud architectures, enterprise artificial intelligence, blockchain services and quantum computing, helping to position IBM as a provider of advanced technologies for large corporate and government clients.[10][11]

🤝 Red Hat acquisition and hybrid cloud strategy. Krishna is widely described as the principal architect of IBM's 2018 agreement to acquire Red Hat, the open-source enterprise software company, in a cash deal valued at approximately 34 billion United States dollars, the largest acquisition in IBM's history.[2][4] He argued that owning Red Hat's Linux and Kubernetes-based platforms would allow IBM to lead the emerging hybrid cloud market by combining its enterprise relationships with open-source technologies that run across multiple public clouds, a strategic thesis that has since shaped IBM's positioning in the cloud infrastructure and software arena.[4][12]

🧭 Appointment as chief executive and chairman. On 31 January 2020 IBM announced that Krishna would succeed Ginni Rometty as chief executive officer, with effect from 6 April 2020, and that Rometty would remain executive chairman for a transition period.[2] He wrote a widely circulated letter to IBM's roughly 350,000 employees outlining a "maniacal focus" on hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence and calling for "speed over elegance" in execution, signalling a pragmatic, engineering-led leadership style.[6] In January 2021 he was elected chairman of IBM's board, formally uniting the roles of chair and CEO.[1]

☁️ Corporate restructuring and growth initiatives. Early in his tenure Krishna led the separation of IBM's managed infrastructure services business into a new publicly traded company, Kyndryl, completed in November 2021, in order to concentrate IBM on higher-growth, higher-margin software, consulting and cloud services.[4] Following the spin-off, software and consulting activities together accounted for more than three-quarters of IBM's revenue by 2023, and the company launched new offerings such as the Watsonx artificial intelligence platform while continuing to invest heavily in quantum computing research and services.[7][1] Analysts have noted that IBM under Krishna has returned to low single-digit revenue growth, reversed earlier years of decline and increased profitability, even though its expansion remains slower than that of the largest public cloud providers.[4][7]

💹 Shareholder returns and balance sheet. IBM's financial profile also changed under Krishna's leadership: from the start of his tenure in April 2020 to late 2023, shareholders who reinvested dividends saw a total return approaching a doubling of their investment, a marked improvement over the preceding decade when the stock had significantly underperformed broader equity indices.[4] He prioritised paying down the debt incurred to finance the Red Hat deal, reducing total debt from around 73 billion to about 55 billion United States dollars between 2019 and 2023, while maintaining and modestly increasing IBM's long-standing quarterly dividend, which by 2023 had been raised for 28 consecutive years.[4][8]

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Financials and wealth

💰 Executive compensation. As chief executive, Krishna has received compensation packages typical for the leader of a large United States technology and services company, though below the very highest levels of Silicon Valley pay. IBM filings and industry analyses indicate that his total compensation for 2022 was around 16.5 million United States dollars, and that following improved results his package for 2024 rose by roughly 23 percent to about 25 million dollars, largely in the form of stock-based awards alongside a base salary of 1.5 million dollars and an annual incentive bonus.[13][8] According to these reports, the ratio between his pay and that of the median IBM employee is above 500 to one, reflecting both the size of his role and the company's global workforce in lower-wage markets.[8]

📊 Net worth and share ownership. External estimates place Krishna's personal net worth in the low nine-figure range, with one analysis in late 2024 suggesting a figure of roughly 100 to 105 million United States dollars, largely derived from his IBM equity holdings and accumulated compensation.[14][15] Public filings show that he owns or has rights to several hundred thousand IBM shares, with one disclosure in 2025 citing direct holdings of around 318,000 shares, so that a substantial portion of his wealth fluctuates with IBM's share price.[15][16]

🏛️ Board roles and other interests. In addition to his IBM role, Krishna has built a portfolio of corporate and non-profit appointments that add to both his influence and his income. In 2022 he joined the board of directors of aerospace and defence contractor Northrop Grumman, receiving the standard mix of cash retainers and restricted stock units for outside directors.[17] He also serves as a Class B director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and sits on the boards or leadership councils of the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum and the Economic Club of New York, reflecting his engagement with economic policy, bilateral trade and business leadership fora beyond IBM.[10][1]

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Personal life and leadership style

🏠 Family and residence. Krishna is married with two children and lives with his family in the state of Connecticut, within commuting distance of IBM's long-time headquarters region in Westchester County, New York.[1][5] Public information about his spouse and children is limited, as he tends to keep his private life out of the spotlight, and he is usually described as a reserved, soft-spoken figure rather than a celebrity chief executive.[5][9]

🧠 Technologist at heart. Despite his corporate responsibilities, Krishna has maintained the identity of a technologist, frequently engaging with IBM researchers and customers on detailed technical questions and continuing to highlight curiosity and continuous learning as core leadership values.[9][18] He has been credited with co-authoring around fifteen patents and has written or co-written numerous scientific papers, experience that feeds into a data-driven management style in which he often presses teams to justify proposals from first principles.[1][10]

👨‍🏫 Engagement with education and mentoring. Krishna maintains close ties with his alma maters and with universities more broadly, participating in advisory councils, speaking regularly to students and advocating for stronger science, technology, engineering and mathematics pipelines.[3][10] Both IIT Kanpur and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have honoured him with distinguished alumni awards, and he often frames his own career as an example of how education and sustained effort can lead to leadership in global companies.[3][5]

🏢 Views on workplace culture and remote work. In public remarks during and after the COVID-19 pandemic Krishna has argued for a balanced approach to remote work, expressing scepticism that fully remote arrangements are optimal for long-term career development and people management.[19] He has suggested that employees who never come to the office may find it harder to build the informal networks and leadership skills needed for promotion, and under his guidance IBM has generally encouraged a hybrid model with several days each week spent on site, a stance that has drawn both support and criticism in wider debates about the future of work.[19][9]

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Controversies and challenges

⚖️ Diversity metrics and leaked hiring video. In late 2023 Krishna became the focus of controversy when a secretly recorded internal meeting about diversity and inclusion targets was circulated online by an activist group, showing him discussing how executive bonuses at IBM could be partially adjusted based on whether managers improved the representation of Black and Hispanic employees in their organisations and avoided having teams composed overwhelmingly of one group, including Asians.[20] The footage prompted criticism from some commentators and politicians, including technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, who characterised the ideas as unlawful race-based quotas, but Krishna later told employees that IBM's programme devoted around five per cent of executives' variable compensation to progress on diversity metrics, with the bulk tied to financial performance, and insisted that the company complied with anti-discrimination laws while seeking a more inclusive workforce.[21]

🤖 Automation, artificial intelligence and employment. In May 2023 Krishna drew wide attention when he told an interviewer that IBM planned to pause hiring for certain back-office roles that he believed could be automated with artificial intelligence over a five-year period, suggesting that up to 30 percent of selected positions—equating to several thousand jobs—might eventually be handled by software rather than new employees.[22] His remarks fuelled concerns about job losses from AI, and IBM later emphasised that the company would rely largely on attrition rather than abrupt layoffs in the affected areas, while Krishna in subsequent comments argued that AI should be viewed as a tool to ease labour shortages and augment human work rather than as a simple cost-cutting device.[22][23]

📉 Restructuring, layoffs and strategic scrutiny. Like many large technology firms, IBM under Krishna has carried out periodic workforce reductions and restructurings, including job cuts announced in early 2023 linked to previously divested operations, even as it has hired in growth areas such as cloud, consulting and security.[22][4] Some employees and anonymous commentators on forums such as Reddit have criticised the pace of organisational change, offshoring and performance targets, while a number of investors have questioned whether IBM's modest one to two percent annual revenue growth under Krishna is sufficient given the faster expansion of rivals in cloud computing.[24][7] Despite these debates, there have been no allegations of personal misconduct, and IBM's board has consistently backed his long-term hybrid cloud and AI strategy.[1][4]

🌱 Environmental, social and governance priorities. On environmental and governance issues Krishna has largely continued IBM's tradition of presenting itself as a responsible corporate citizen, supporting targets such as achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and expanding reporting on the ethics and transparency of artificial intelligence systems.[1][7] He has called for regulation focused on harmful uses of AI—such as applications that threaten privacy or civil liberties—rather than across-the-board restrictions on the technology itself, and in 2020 IBM under his leadership announced that it would no longer offer general-purpose facial recognition products because of concerns over potential misuse and bias.[25] He has also joined other business leaders in advocating more open immigration policies for technology professionals, linking his own experience as an immigrant to the broader role of skilled migration in the industry.[10][1]

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Legacy and recognition

🏅 Indian-origin leadership in global technology. Krishna's rise from an Indian Army household and elite engineering institutions in India to the top of a century-old American technology company has often been cited as part of a broader pattern of Indian-origin executives leading global firms, alongside contemporaries such as Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai.[3][5] Commentators in India and the United States have portrayed his story as emblematic of a "brain drain to brain trust" trajectory, in which early migration for education is followed by leadership roles that link the economies and innovation systems of both countries.[5][10]

🔬 Innovation agenda and external honours. Even before becoming chief executive, Krishna attracted attention for championing frontier technologies inside IBM, including cloud platforms, blockchain services and quantum computing, leading one technology magazine in 2016 to list him among executives "creating the future of business" and a trade publication in 2021 to name him its most influential executive of the year.[11][26] Under his leadership IBM has sought to reclaim aspects of its heritage as a research-driven innovator while reorienting toward hybrid cloud and AI services tailored to large enterprises, a direction that observers see as closely aligned with his own blend of scientific background and commercial experience.[7][1]

🔭 Assessment and ongoing influence. Evaluations of Krishna's tenure emphasise that his legacy is still in formation: IBM has stabilised after a prolonged period of decline, improved profitability and repositioned itself in growing markets, but it faces continuing pressure to accelerate growth and compete more aggressively with cloud leaders.[4][12] Supporters credit him with making difficult structural changes—such as the Kyndryl spin-off and renewed emphasis on research-driven offerings—while critics argue that the company remains too cautious and complex to regain the dominance it once enjoyed.[4][24] In interviews Krishna has framed his task as steering IBM through the next decade of technological shifts in areas such as AI and quantum computing, while remaining grounded in the values of long-term research, client trust and inclusive opportunity that he associates with both his personal background and the company's history.[18][1]

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References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 "Arvind Krishna". IBM. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "IBM's 'surprise' CEO: Arvind Krishna to take over from Ginni Rometty". Reuters. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 "Arvind Krishna education and career path: How this Indian-origin IIT Kanpur engineer rose from research labs to lead IBM as CEO". The Times of India. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 "If you invested $10,000 in IBM stock when Arvind Krishna became CEO". The Motley Fool. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 "Arvind Krishna – Indian American business executive". Global Indian. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "IBM's new CEO vows to embrace a nimble, pragmatic leadership style". Business Insider. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 "IBM Q3 FY 2024 earnings deliver strong software growth". The Futurum Group. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 "IBM boss Arvind Krishna's pay goes up 23% to $25+ million". The Register. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 "What leadership style does IBM use? A strategic blueprint". Quarterdeck. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  10. ↑ 10.00 10.01 10.02 10.03 10.04 10.05 10.06 10.07 10.08 10.09 "Arvind Krishna – board of directors". Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "25 geniuses who are creating the future of business". Wired. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "IBM falls on lukewarm growth for Red Hat software business". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  13. ↑ "IBM's most highly compensated executives in 2022". CRN. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  14. ↑ "Arvind Krishna net worth – insider trades and bio". Benzinga. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Arvind Krishna net worth (2025)". Quiver Quantitative. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  16. ↑ "Who is Arvind Krishna: the CEO of IBM, an IITian whose salary will blow your mind". The Financial Express. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  17. ↑ "Company leadership – Arvind Krishna". Northrop Grumman. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "IBM CEO Arvind Krishna: success is determined by curiosity and continuous learning". All Wellbeing. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 "Remote work may not benefit all employees, says IBM CEO". HRM Asia. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  20. ↑ "'Obviously illegal:' Elon Musk slams IBM chief Arvind Krishna over leaked video on diversity-focused hiring practices". Investing.com. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  21. ↑ "IBM chief Arvind Krishna says nothing illegal about hiring practices after Musk's alarm". Nasdaq. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 "IBM CEO says it is pausing hiring on some roles AI could replace". Axios. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  23. ↑ "IBM CEO Arvind Krishna says many companies are not laying off because of AI". The Times of India. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 "Why does everyone dislike Arvind?". Reddit. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  25. ↑ "Regulate bad AI use cases, not the whole tech: IBM CEO Arvind Krishna". National Herald India. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  26. ↑ "CRN's most influential executives 2021: Arvind Krishna". CRN. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
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