Arvind KrishnaKrishna in 2025Born (1962-11-23) November 23, 1962 (age 63)West Godari, Andhra Pradesh, India[1]Alma materIndian Institute of Technology Kanpur (BTech) University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign (PhD)TitleChairman & CEO, IBMPredecessorGinni Rometty
Arvind Krishna (born November 23, 1962)[2] is an Indian American business executive, and the chairman and CEO of IBM. He has been CEO of IBM since April 2020 and chairman since January 2021.[3][4] Krishna began his career at IBM in 1990, at its Thomas J. Watson Research Center,[5] and was promoted to senior vice president in 2015, managing IBM Cloud & Cognitive Software and IBM Research divisions. He was a principal architect of the acquisition of Red Hat, the largest acquisition in the company's history.[6][7]
Early life and education[edit]Krishna was born in a Telugu family in West Godari District, Andhra Pradesh, India.[1][8][9] His father, Major General Vinod Krishna, was an army officer who served in the Indian Army and his mother, Aarathi Krishna, worked for the welfare of Army widows.[10][11] Krishna studied at Stanes Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, and at St Joseph's Academy, Dehradun.[12]
Krishna received a Bachelor of Technology degree in electrical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1985 and a Doctor of Philosophy in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1991.[13][14][15][16]
Career[edit] Professional career[edit]Krishna joined IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in 1990, and continued in Watson Research for 18 years until 2009. Thereafter, he held a General Manager role in Information management software and systems and technology group of IBM. In 2015, he was promoted to senior vice president of IBM Research.[17] He later became senior vice president of IBM's cloud and cognitive software division.[8]
Krishna also led the building and expansion of new markets for IBM in artificial intelligence, cloud, quantum computing, and blockchain technology.[18][19] He was a driving force behind IBM's $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat, which closed in July 2019.[20]
He was appointed IBM's CEO in January 2020, effective April 6, 2020,[21] succeeding Ginni Rometty who was CEO since 2012.[22] He joined Satya Nadella, Shantanu Narayen, and Sundar Pichai as an Indian-American CEO of a major United States technology company.[23][24] In 2021, he was named by CRN as the year's "Most Influential Executive".[25]
Krishna is a member of The Business Council.[26]
Research[edit]Krishna has co-authored 15 patents, has been the editor of IEEE and ACM journals, and has published extensively in technical journals.[27]
Personal life[edit]Krishna is married and has two children. He lives in Connecticut.[28]
See also[edit] Indians in the New York City metropolitan area References[edit] ^ a b "Meet Arvind Krishna, new IBM CEO who is latest south Indian to head global IT company". India Today. February 1, 2020. Archived from the original on October 9, 2020. Retrieved October 8, 2020. ^ Armitage, Jim (October 21, 2023). "IBM chief Arvind Krishna: Why we need to worry about AI". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on August 2, 2024. Retrieved August 2, 2024. ^ "Arvind Krishna Elected IBM Chairman". December 16, 2020. Archived from the original on October 22, 2021. Retrieved October 22, 2021. ^ "IBM names Indian-origin Arvind Krishna as CEO". Deccan Chronicle. Asian News International. January 31, 2020. Archived from the original on October 5, 2020. Retrieved October 8, 2020. ^ "IBM's 'surprise' CEO: Arvind Krishna to take over from Ginni Rometty". Reuters. January 31, 2020. Archived from the original on April 15, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2020. ^ "Arvind Krishna". LinkedIn. Archived from the original on September 14, 2015. Retrieved October 8, 2020. ^ Morris, Did Z. (February 3, 2020). "What you need to know about new IBM CEO Arvind Krishna". Fortune. Archived from the original on October 5, 2020. Retrieved October 8, 2020. ^ a b "Arvind Krishna ascends beyond cloud at IBM". Economic Times. February 1, 2020. Archived from the original on October 5, 2020. Retrieved October 8, 2020. ^ "Arvind Krishna". The Global Indian. Retrieved October 15, 2025. ^ Sangani, Priyanka (February 3, 2020). "Industry leaders, peers raise a toast to good news". Economic Times. Archived from the original on October 5, 2020. Retrieved October 8, 2020. ^ John, Sujit; Phadnis, Shilpa; Das, Avik (February 1, 2020). "Indian-origin technologist Arvind Krishna to lead IBM, joins club of global Indian CEOs". Times of India. Archived from the original on October 5, 2020. Retrieved October 8, 2020. ^ Jan 31, TIMESOFINDIA COM /. "Who is Arvind Krishna IBM? All you need to know about IBM's new CEO Arvind Krishna | India News - Times of India". The Times of India. Archived from the original on May 5, 2023. Retrieved May 24, 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) ^ Krishna, Arvind. "Arvind Krishna | LinkedIn". Archived from the original on September 14, 2015. Retrieved July 14, 2020. ^ Lohr, Steve (January 30, 2020). "Ginni Rometty to Step Down as C.E.O. of IBM". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 31, 2020. Retrieved January 31, 2020. ^ "Arvind Krishna: IBMer who joins elite Indian-origin CEOs' club". Outlook. Indo-Asian News Service. January 31, 2020. Archived from the original on January 31, 2020. Retrieved January 31, 2020. ^ "IITian Arvind Krishna appointed CEO of global tech giant IBM; 5 little known facts about him". Business Today. January 31, 2020. Archived from the original on October 5, 2020. Retrieved October 8, 2020. ^ Morgan, Timothy Prickett (January 12, 2015). "IBM Reorganizes To Reflect Its New Business Machine". IT Jungle. Archived from the original on January 1, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2020. ^ Mendonca, Jochelle (January 31, 2020). "IBM raises IITian Arvind Krishna to CEO effective April". Economic Times. Archived from the original on March 5, 2020. Retrieved October 8, 2020. ^ "Meet Arvind Krishna, the IIT Kanpur graduate who will be new CEO of IBM". Mint. January 31, 2020. Archived from the original on January 31, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2020. ^ Fortt, Jon (April 6, 2020). "IBM's new CEO takes over today — here's his plan". CNBC. Archived from the original on October 9, 2020. Retrieved October 9, 2020. ^ Fitch, Asa (January 30, 2020). "IBM's Ginni Rometty Steps Down as CEO". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on October 5, 2020. Retrieved October 8, 2020. ^ Carville, Olivia (January 30, 2020). "IBM Names Arvind Krishna CEO, Replacing Ginni Rometty". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on January 31, 2020. Retrieved January 31, 2020. ^ Bhattacharya, Ananya (January 31, 2020). "IBM has just given American big tech its third Indian-origin CEO". Quartz India. Archived from the original on October 5, 2020. Retrieved August 28, 2020. ^ Khan, Tahira Noor (February 1, 2020). "Arvind Krishna Becomes Latest Indian-Origin Executive To Lead a Global Tech Giant". Entrepreneur. Archived from the original on October 5, 2020. Retrieved August 28, 2020. ^ Burke, Steven (August 2, 2021). "2021 Most Influential Executive Arvind Krishna: 'I Bleed Blue'". CRN. Archived from the original on May 23, 2023. Retrieved August 16, 2021. ^ Admin. "Active Members". The Business Council. Retrieved July 11, 2025. ^ "Meet Arvind Krishna, the IIT Kanpur graduate who will be new CEO of IBM". Mint. January 31, 2020. ^ Armitage, Jim (October 21, 2023). "IBM chief Arvind Krishna: Why we need to worry about AI". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved July 11, 2025. External links[edit] Arvind Krishna on Twitter Arvind Krishna – Forbes Business positions Preceded byGinni Rometty CEO of IBM 2020–present Succeeded by Preceded byGinni Rometty Executive Chairman of IBM 2020–present Succeeded by vteIBMHistory History World War II Mergers and acquisitions PC business acquisition by Lenovo ProductsHardwareCurrent Mainframe IBM Z Power microprocessors Power Systems Storage FlashSystem DS8000 Quantum Q System One Q System Two Eagle Osprey Heron Condor Former Blue Gene Cell microprocessors PowerPC Midrange computer Personal Computer Selectric ThinkPad Carbon Design System Cloud Cloudant Cognos Analytics Connections Criminal Reduction Utilising Statistical History Fortran ILOG Information Management Software Lotus Software Mainframe operating systems Mashup Center Planning Analytics PureQuery Quantum Platform Qiskit OpenQASM Rational Software SPSS Tivoli Software Service Automation Manager Watson Watsonx Granite WebSphere BusinessentitiesCurrent Apptio Center for The Business of Government Consulting Promontory Kenexa International subsidiaries India Press Red Hat Research Former AdStar AIM alliance Kaleida Labs Taligent Ambra Computer Cognos EduQuest Kyndryl Lexmark Merative Microelectronics Product Center Retail Store Solutions Science Research Associates Service Bureau The Weather Company (Weather Underground) Facilities Towers 1250 René-Lévesque, Montreal, QC One Atlantic Center, Atlanta, GA Software Labs Rome Software Lab Toronto Software Lab IBM Buildings Chicago Honolulu New York Seattle Facilities Thomas J. Watson Research Center Hakozaki Facility Yamato Facility Cambridge Scientific Center IBM Hursley Canada Head Office Building IBM Rochester Initiatives Deep Thunder Develothon Fellow The Great Mind Challenge Linux Technology Center SkillsBuild Smarter Planet Virtual Universe Community World Community Grid Think conference Inventions Automated teller machine Cynefin framework DRAM Electronic keypunch Floppy disk Hard disk drive Magnetic stripe card Relational model Sabre airline reservation system Scanning tunneling microscope Financial swaps Universal Product Code Terminology Big Blue Commercial Processing Workload Customer engineer Globally integrated enterprise e-business Think slogan CEOs Thomas J. Watson (1914–1956) Thomas Watson Jr. (1956–1971) T. Vincent Learson (1971–1973) Frank T. Cary (1973–1981) John R. Opel (1981–1985) John Fellows Akers (1985–1993) Louis V. Gerstner Jr. (1993–2002) Samuel J. Palmisano (2002–2011) Ginni Rometty (2012–2020) Arvind Krishna (since 2020) Other A Boy and His Atom Big Blue sports teams American football Rugby union Common Public License/IBM Public License Wallace v. International Business Machines Corp. Deep Blue Deep Thought Dynamic infrastructure GlobalFoundries GUIDE International IBM and the Holocaust International chess tournament Lucifer cipher Mathematica IBM Plex SHARE computing ScicomP Unions Commons Category Nigational boxes FOSS Midrange computers Operating systems Personal computers System/360 System/370 Typewriters Vacuum tube computers Authority control databases VIAFGND