Arvind Krishna is IBM's new CEO: All you need to know about the IIT alumnus

Arvind Krishna, 57, will take over as the chief executive of International Business Machines (IBM) in April, replacing Virginia Rometty.

Krishna, who has been with the company since 1990, currently leads IBM’s cloud business. He played a crucial role in the software giant’s acquisition of Red Hat in 2019, with the company calling him the “principal architect” of the deal.

With his new role, Krishna joins a list of Indian-origin heads of multinational companies, which includes Microsoft Chief Executive Office (CEO) Satya Nadella, Alphabet chief Sundar Pichai and former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi.

Krishna has an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur. He later went on to do a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Krishna, also the co-author of 15 patents, has been the editor of IEEE and ACM journals, News18 reported.

Apart from the cloud business, his current responsibilities at the company include the IBM Security and Cognitive Applications business, and IBM Research. Before holding his current position, he was the general manager of IBM's Systems and Technology Group's development and manufacturing organisation.

"Arvind is the right CEO for the next era at IBM," Rometty said in a statement issued by IBM.

Krishna will work closely with IBM’s newly-appointed President James Whitehurst.

“We have great opportunities ahead to help our clients advance the transformation of their business while also remaining the global leader in the trusted stewardship of technology. Jim will be a great partner in the next step of this journey," Krishna said in the statement.

"In Arvind and Jim, the Board has elected a proven technical and business-savvy leadership team," Rometty added.