IBM Reshuffles Systems and Technology Executives

It’s a new year, and one with its own challenges. And big companies like IBM like to cross-train their top executives to sit in various regions and management, development, and sales jobs throughout their careers so they can have seasoned, well-rounded executives running their groups and divisions. And that is why IBM last week rejiggered its organizational chart and moved around some of its key executives within the Systems and Technology Group, which makes processors and servers and develops operating systems.

Bill Zeitler, senior vice president and group executive in charge of the Systems and Technology Group, announced the executive changes last week in a memo sent to the employees that work for the group. First off, Zeitler has created a new operating unit within his own group, called Technology Collaboration Solutions, which brings together formerly separate operations relating to custom manufacturing, design, and intellectual property. Adalio Sanchez, who was general manager of the pSeries Unix server business for the past several years and oversaw IBM’s boom in Unix server sales and market share gains, has been named general manager of the Technology Collaboration Solutions unit.

“Under Adalio’s leadership, we have an opportunity to accelerate our momentum in everything from consumer electronics to aerospace and defense by aligning these capabilities within a single organization,” explained Zeitler in the memo. “This more integrated approach will make it easier for clients to leverage IBM technology and expertise beyond the data center and into their core product and service innovation. ”

Ross Mauri, who was for many years head of mainframe development and who was most recently general manager of IBM’s On Demand projects within Systems and Technology Group, has been named general manager of the pSeries division.

Erich Clementi, who has headed up IBM’s zSeries mainframe division for a number of years, has been named general manager of IBM’s Business Transformation Outsourcing (BTO) and Business Performance Transformation Services (BPTS). He reports to Mike Daniels, who is senior vice president of the Information Technology Services division within the Global Services behemoth. The ITS division accounted for around 29 percent of IBM’s overall $47.4 billion in services sales in 2005. The BTO and BPTS units are the fastest growing businesses in IBM’s vast portfolio, and the fact that the company has put a long-time mainframer with a deep background in the European financial services community in charge of these operations means that despite the growth, Big Blue thinks a more seasoned executive is needed to fully chase the potential.

Replacing Clementi as the general manager of the zSeries business is Jim Stallings, who was vice president of intellectual property and standards at IBM and who used to run IBM’s cross-divisional Linux efforts.

Zeitler also announced that Curtis Tearte, who was general manager of its Innovation Solutions unit (a vertical industry grouping), is now in charge of the Infrastructure Solutions unit, which includes retail systems, printers, Linux, grid and high performance computing, virtualization, On Demand, and Internet technologies.

Although IBM did not make this announcement formally, the company has confirmed that Peter Bingaman, the energetic vice president of marketing for the iSeries line for a little more than a year, has departed IBM, apparently to take a job at online legal publisher LexusNexus. I attempted to reach him at LexusNexus, but he had not started his new job yet. All IBM would confirm is that he has left the company, and my source would not discuss why Bingaman, who was well liked in the iSeries community, left or when he left.

However, Mark Shearer, the general manager of the iSeries line who has done much to stabilize and energize IBM’s OS/400 platform in the past year and who has kept his job at Systems and Technology Group, did respond to me by email concerning Bingaman’s departure. “In his tenure as marketing VP, Peter Bingaman has been a tremendous advocate for the iSeries and his leadership has helped the iSeries establish a sharp focus on driving value to our customers and partner ecosystem. More than ever the iSeries team is strengthening its ecosystem, differentiating the brand from our competition and clearly defining the value of the product. Marketing will continue to be a top priority for the iSeries. We expect to have another strong leader in that role very shortly.”