Arvind Krishna

Arvind Krishna leads IBM, one of the oldest and most influential names in enterprise computing, having steered the company's pivot toward hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence since becoming chief executive in 2020. A career technologist rather than a career executive, Krishna's rise through IBM's research and software divisions shaped a strategy built on deep technical conviction as much as financial engineering.

Born in India in 1962, Krishna earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur before completing a PhD in electrical engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1991. He joined IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center that year, building a three-decade career almost entirely within the company, spanning semiconductor research, software and cloud strategy.

Krishna moved into general management of IBM's information management software business in 2009 and was promoted to senior vice president of IBM Research in 2015, giving him oversight of the company's most advanced technology bets, including quantum computing. He was the principal architect of IBM's $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat, completed in 2019, a deal that became the cornerstone of the company's hybrid-cloud strategy.

Appointed CEO in January 2020 and taking the role that April, Krishna sharpened IBM's focus around hybrid cloud and AI, spinning off its managed infrastructure business as Kyndryl in 2021 to concentrate the parent company on higher-margin software and consulting. He became chairman in January 2021, consolidating control over IBM's long-term direction.

Under Krishna, IBM has pushed enterprise AI through its watsonx platform and continued heavy investment in quantum computing research, positioning the company as a specialist partner for large regulated enterprises navigating AI adoption rather than a consumer-facing hyperscaler. He remains an outspoken voice on responsible AI governance and enterprise data strategy in Washington and international policy circles.