RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Gary Cohn, a former president of Goldman Sachs who served as an economic advisor to President Trump, is joining IBM as a board member – Vice Chairman – and also will become part of Big Blue’s executive team.
Cohn tweeted the news early Tuesday and IBM (NYSE: IBM) made an official announcement.
In the tweet Cohn said he was “honored” to be joining IBM.
Arvind Krishna is chair and CEO of IBM, which maintains a large campus in RTP and owns Raleigh-based Red Hat. Jim Whitehurst, former CEO of Red Hat, is IBM’s president.
In his new role, Cohn “will work in partnership with Mr. Krishna and the IBM Executive Leadership Team on a wide range of business initiatives and external engagement, in areas including business development, client services, public advocacy and client relationship management,” IBM said in the announcement.
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“Gary is a globally respected leader with deep experience operating at the center of business and government,” Krishna said. “As a senior representative of IBM, his knowledge of technology and business transformation, combined with policymaking expertise, will bring unique value to our clients and stakeholders as we accelerate our hybrid cloud and AI strategy.”
Cohn served as Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council from January 2017 until April 2018. He was president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs Group from 2006-2016.
Currently, Cohn is co-chairman of Cohn Robbins Holding Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company.
