Senior Vice President, Worldwide Ecosystems and Blockchain, IBM
Bob is Senior Vice President, Worldwide Ecosystems and Blockchain. He is focused on ensuring the mutual success of IBM’s ecosystem of partners, developers and customers with our open hybrid cloud platform and AI software.
At the center of this work is a commitment to the open-source community. Bob oversees IBM’s leadership and participation in dozens of open-source communities, contribution and donation of open-source code, and overall industry advocacy. A prime example is Call for Code, which Bob launched in 2018 to give developers and problem solvers access to IBM tools and technologies as a means to solve global, societal challenges. Since launch, more than 400,000 developers and problem solvers from more than 179 nations have built solutions for an immediate and lasting impact in society.
Bob joined IBM in 2016 as the company's first Chief Digital Officer, with a mission to change how IBM innovation is delivered and consumed by the world’s leading organizations. Prior to IBM, Bob served as President of AOL, leading the company through its evolution into a leading, global advertising platform. He also served as CEO of Razorfish, a pioneering digital transformation consultancy helping companies like Cisco, Condé Nast, Ford, Mercedes-Benz and Pfizer redefine their brands for the digital age.
Bob’s experience and passion made him an active member of the TED community, board member for Aqua Finance, a Blackstone Company, and former board member for Williams-Sonoma and Screen Vision Media. He is one of CRN’s 50 “Most Influential” channel chiefs and the author of the 2013 book Converge: Transforming Business at the Intersection of Marketing and Technology.
He began his career as an engineer, graduating from Syracuse University with a BS in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, and holds an MBA from Harvard University.