By Reuters
Publication Date: 2025-12-28 20:41:00
Louis Gerstner, the former CEO and chairman of IBM, died on Saturday, aged 83.
IBM chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna announced Gerstner’s death in an email sent Sunday to employees, but did not provide a cause of death.
“Lou arrived at IBM at a moment when the company’s future was genuinely uncertain. His leadership during that period reshaped the company. Not by looking backward, but by focusing relentlessly on what our clients would need next,” Krishna said in his email.
Gerstner moved to IBM from being the CEO of RJR Nabisco in April 1993 after stints at American Express and the consultancy McKinsey, becoming the first outsider to run Big Blue, as IBM was called.
During the nine years he led the computer giant, he was widely credited with turning around a company that was facing potential bankruptcy, pivoting the company to business services….
