RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Amidst the mayhem of the coronavirus crisis, IBM’s long-time CEO Virginia Rometty is set to step down from her post on April 6, capping a 40-year run with the company. But IBM’s top NC executive sees a smooth transition to her successor.

Big Blue announced her upcoming resignation in late January, with Arvind Krishna, IBM’s current vice president for Cloud and Cognitive Software as her replacement.

James Whitehurst, IBM’s senior vice president and CEO of RED Hat, will also step up as president.

This week, one of North Carolina’s top IBM executives said that, even with the uncertainty surrounding the virus, he feels confident about the change of guard during this time.

He also talked Krishna’s ties to North Carolina, and its implications for the Triangle region.

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“Arvind is a great businessman, great technologist,” IBM’s VP of Chief Data Office Tim Humphrey told WRAL TechWire via phone interview.

“He comes to the RTP site to visit [often], and on one of his recent visits, maybe a year and a half ago or so, he helped us raise the money to be able to renovate the whole facility, which is massive.

“Our facilities are over 50 years old, but he helped us renovate the entire complex into a very modern, agile, open landscape.

“He’s a big advocate of collaboration, innovation, promoting, promoting our developers.”

Humphrey said he is also “thrilled” to see Whitehurst become IBM’s new president.

Whitehurst joined Red Hat in December 2007 after spending six years at Delta Air Lines as COO and in charge of international expansion.

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In October, he helped broker IBM’s whopping $34 billion buyout of the Raleigh-based Red Hat, one of the biggest tech mergers ever and the largest such deal in the history of North Caorlina.

“I didn’t know him prior to the acquisition,” said Humphrey. “I’ve talked with him [since] and worked with him and he is just a fantastic leader.

“His track record speaks for itself, and anytime you can see someone from our local community, grow a business the way he grew Red Hat, and now ultimately become IBM president, is just something that makes me very proud.

“He’s going to take us what he’s going to take us to in this next chapter for IBM.”