Lifestyle

Powerful Women: Virginia Rometty

by Ally Batista
Stocksy

As I’ve written in past Powerful Women articles, I’m always impressed when someone is the first to accomplish something. So when a woman is the first woman to reach a certain point in a business, I look up to them.

Virginia Rometty is the current Chairman and CEO of IBM. She’s also the first woman to ever head IBM. She’s been honored by Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business for eight consecutive years (ranking #1 in 2012) and has also been named to Forbes’ World’s 100 Most Powerful Women and Time 100 lists.

Rometty graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and electrical engineering, which she received with high honors in 1979. In 1981 Rometty joined IBM as a systems engineer and quickly moved onto their Consulting Group in 1991.

Rometty held a number of positions within the company including Senior Vice President and Group Executive for Sales and Marking Strategy before becoming CEO in 2011. Rometty also holds positions on the Board of Trustees at Northwestern University, the Board of Overseers of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and on The Deming Cup’s committee at Columbia Business School.

Ally | Elite.

Photo Credit: Getty Images