IBM has moved chief financial officer John Joyce to the
head of its services group and named global financial manager Mark
Loughridge as his successor.
Joyce replaces Doug Elix, a 30-year veteran of IBM who has run
IBM Global Services since October 1999.
Elix will now lead IBM's sales and distribution group, replacing
Mike Lawrie, who is leaving to join Siebel as its chief
executive.
Joyce, Elix and Loughridge will all report to IBM chief
executive officer Sam Palmisano. Loughridge's successor in global
financing will be named shortly.
Joyce became IBM's CFO in November 1999, after years of work in
the company's finance department and a stint as president of IBM
Asia Pacific. The IBM Global Services organisation he will lead is
IBM's largest division, with revenue last year of $42.6bn.
In his memo to staff, Palmisano cast the management moves as
business as usual.
"The intent of these leadership changes is straightforward - to
step up the pace of our marketplace execution and accelerate our
strategic growth plans," he wrote.
Yankee Group analyst Andy Efstathiou said IBM's Global Services
group has been transformed in the past decade from a small add-on
to the hardware and software groups into a core unit that is the
envy of other IT companies.
Efstathiou did not see any glaring weakness in the division that
Joyce will need to remedy. Instead, the new executive's task will
be to keep the services group growing. Joyce's background with
IBM's Asia-Pacific business could be a great asset there: That
region has been expanding rapidly and could be one of IBM's major
growth engines, he added.
Stacy Cowley writes for IDG News
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