IBM Promotes Di Leo, Van Kralingen as CEO Makes First Changes

By Beth Jinks and Ville Heiskanen - Jan 4, 2012 12:01 PM GMT+0700

International Business Machines Corp. Chief Executive Officer Virginia “Ginni” Rometty named Bruno Di Leo as sales chief and Bridget Van Kralingen as head of consulting, her first promotions after taking over Jan. 1.

Di Leo’s title will be senior vice president of sales and distribution, IBM (IBM) said yesterday in a memo to employees. He was previously general manager of IBM’s growth markets unit, while Van Kralingen was formerly the general manager of IBM’s North America sales and distribution unit.

Rometty, the first woman at the helm in IBM’s 100-year history, is starting to form her management team after taking the reins from Sam Palmisano. By expanding in areas such as emerging markets, cloud computing and analytics, she’s trying to meet a goal of adding $20 billion in new revenue between 2010 and 2015. Analysts on average estimate IBM will report $107.2 billion in sales for 2011.

“They make sure that people understand all aspects of the company as part of the management mentoring process,” Laura D. Tyson, a business professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a phone interview before the promotions were announced. “They develop their own talent, and my sense is that it’s done in a collegial or camaraderie fashion -- as opposed to a very competitive, intense sort -- to keep the team together.”

Van Kralingen is replacing Frank Kern, who is retiring after 35 years at the Armonk, New York-based company. IBM also appointed James Bramante senior vice president of the growth markets unit.

IBM rose 1.3 percent to $186.30 yesterday at the close in New York.

Van Kralingen, the new senior vice president of IBM Global Business Services, the company’s consulting unit, is a South African who has led turnarounds in global business services in northeast Europe, IBM said.

Di Leo, a native of Peru, joined IBM in 1975 as a software engineer. His replacement, Bramante, will be based in Shanghai with the elevated title of senior vice president as IBM seeks to boost its growth markets unit to 30 percent of sales by 2015.

To contact the reporter on this story: Beth Jinks in New York at bjinks1@bloomberg.net; Ville Heiskanen in New York at vheiskanen@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net