Report: IBM CEO makes surprise stop in Rochester to discuss changes
(THE MED CITY BEAT) - IBM CEO Ginni Rometty made a surprise visit to the company's Rochester campus on Tuesday, according to a report by KTTC-TV.
An insider at IBM tells the station that Rometty spoke with a large crowd of employees for more than an hour. She reportedly focused on the importance of analytics, cloud development and mobile software to the now-struggling company's future success.
IBM announced in January that it would be laying off "several thousand people" this year as part of a restructuring plan. The company has cut its workforce annually by 6,500 to 21,500 employees for the past seven years, says a recent report by Reuters.
It's unclear how many employees in Rochester have lost their jobs in recent years because of a company policy not to disclose numbers about specific locations. The Post-Bulletin confirmed the campus was affected by the most recent round of cuts.
IBM has approximately 430,000 employees worldwide, including about 2,500 in Rochester (2013). The tech giant's workforce in Rochester peaked at 8,100 employees in 1991, according to an archive from the Star Tribune.
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Rometty, who started her career with IBM in 1981, took over as president and CEO of the company three years ago, according to the company's website. She is the first woman to ever head the company.
Business Insider reports her total compensation was $19.3 million in 2014, up from $14 million in 2013. The article's author, Julie Bort, writes:
“$19.3 million is not an over-the-top salary for the person in charge of one of the biggest, most venerable tech companies in the world, and a highly profitable one at that. Plenty of other CEOs earn millions more.
But things are not smooth for her. She’s leading IBM through one of its epic transitions. All of its core businesses are declining in revenues and IBM has been selling off business units and laying off workers in response.”
Rometty ranked #10 on Forbe's 2014 list of the 'World's Most Powerful Women.'
(Cover photo: 2014 / ibmphoto24 / Creative Commons)
