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Virginia M. "Ginni" Rometty is a business leader and advocate of diversity in the workplace. He will serve as a visiting innovation researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology next academic year.
Luo Ruilan was formerly the chairman, president and chief executive officer of IBM and helped streamline the company's product portfolio by transforming it into a leader in artificial intelligence, hybrid cloud and quantum computing within the company and through acquisitions. Under Luo Ruilan's leadership, IBM acquired 65 companies, including Red Hat, an enterprise open source solution provider, which was the largest acquisition in the company's history.
During his tenure at MIT, Rometty will focus on promoting women in STEM and entrepreneurship, as well as strengthening ethics and responsibility in the digital age.
"The Visit Innovation Scholarship brings thoughtful and visionary leaders to the campus to inspire and educate the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators. Ginni Rometty is such a leader, and I am very happy that our entire community has the opportunity to learn from her ," said L. Rafael Reif, president of MIT, "Ginni believes in the mission of MIT. She has always been a wise and insightful advisor to me and the rest of our campus. We are honored to welcome her to MIT College."
The MIT Visiting Innovation Fellow is part of the MIT Innovation Program, which works with all five MIT schools and the MIT Schwarzman School of Computer Science. The Innovation Program provides alumni and students with the knowledge, tools, and ecosystem needed to "transform high-potential ideas from concept to impact" and generate important local and global innovations.
Visiting innovation researchers come from policy, business, venture capital and entrepreneurial environments. In their role, researchers often interact with the MIT community through events, lectures, and one-on-one meetings with student entrepreneurs and other innovative practitioners seeking deeper engagement.
Human factors at the core of technical issues
Describing her interest in visiting innovation scholarships, Luo Ruilan said: “MIT understands that the future lies in the integration of technology and business - but it also understands the human factors at the core of these issues. Research in these areas, such as artificial intelligence and Cybersecurity is very urgent for our economy and society-especially considering the changes we have seen during the pandemic."
"At IBM, we believe in the basic promise of technology: when we apply science to real-world problems, we can create a better tomorrow than today. I look forward to further advancing this mission during MIT," she added road.
After serving as a member of the MIT President and CEO Advisory Board, Luo Ruilan has become familiar with the institute. She is also a member of the advisory board of the MIT Future Working Group, a two-and-a-half-year work to understand how emerging technologies change the nature of human work and the skills required, and to explore how we design and use Technological innovation to benefit everyone in society.
Martin A. Schmidt, Dean of MIT, stated that Luo Ruilan's background and experience are very consistent with MIT's innovation goals. "Ginni Rometty embodies the essence of MIT's mission to innovate on campus and the world, and we are honored to welcome her to our community," Schmidt said. "Her work on enhancing job readiness, addressing ethical and privacy challenges in computing, and building a diverse and inclusive workforce will help inform how to efficiently and effectively prepare future employees, and will Innovation is transformed from ideas to real-world solutions."
Diversified efforts and new ways of working
During the eight years at the helm of IBM, Luo Ruilan is also known for her work advocating diversity and inclusion.
"You can't be what you can't see. For women, communities of color, or any group, it is very important to set an example to understand the possibilities," said Luo Ruilan.
One of her proudest achievements is taking action around diversity initiatives, she said: “I know that as a CEO, I have a responsibility to break the systemic barriers that keep people away from the labor market and deprive economic opportunities.”
While at IBM, Luo Ruilan advocated a global movement sometimes referred to as "skills first," which is a paradigm for recruiting new employees based on skills and talents (not just degrees). In Luo Ruilan's last year at IBM, these "new foremen" accounted for 15% of IBM's new employees in the United States.
"Economic opportunity is the best equalizer. At IBM, we invest in recruiting and training new foremen to engage in valuable, technology-based jobs that do not require a traditional four-year degree to start, but It does require the right combination of skills," Rometty said.
IBM has also seen the growth of its pathway to early technical colleges and high schools or the P-TECH program, a global education model designed in conjunction with the New York City Department of Education and the City University of New York, and currently operates approximately 200 schools in New York . Another 100 in the U.S. and worldwide.
Rometty also introduced an extended parental leave policy and encouraged new mothers to return to IBM through the "reward" program, which provides hands-on experience in emerging technologies.
"Now, I am proud to be the co-chairman of OneTen, an alliance that aims to close the opportunity gap for black American talent by hiring and promoting 1 million skilled African Americans without a college degree into the family—maintaining a career for the next 10 years Career. We are launching a movement to prioritize skills, not just degrees, across the country and the world," said Luo Ruilan.
Fiona Murray, associate dean for innovation and inclusion, said that priorities like this are valuable to the MIT community. "As CEO, Ms. Rometty has deepened and expanded IBM's core capabilities in key areas of deep technology and created a new approach to workforce training for the 21st century. She is particularly committed to actively supporting the leadership role of historically marginalized communities. Important ongoing research is aligned with the priorities of the institute. MIT students, especially those involved in innovation and entrepreneurial activities, will benefit from her when starting, expanding, and developing their own companies and teams All kinds of foresight."
Rometty also serves on multiple boards, including JPMorgan Chase and the Brookings Institution. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University.
Rometty has a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University, where she also received an honorary degree.
Eric Schmidt, co-founder of Schmidt Futures and former Google CEO, served as the most recent visiting innovation researcher. Other researchers include former U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashcart and former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.
Luo Ruilan will deliver a closing keynote speech at the virtual Tough Tech Summit on October 27th.
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