Breaking: IBM CIO Harshal Chaudhari Changes Roles
Art by Tim Bower
Harshal Chaudhari, IBM’s chief investment officer and longtime employee, will be shifting gears within the company to head into artificial intelligence full time and lead its Enterprise Analytics organization, CIO has learned.
Chaudhari, who joined the company in 2002 as a senior managing consultant, became CIO in 2016.
“I have been asked to take on a new role at IBM leading a team of strategy consultants and data scientists working on harnessing AI expertise across business domains,” he told CIO in an email, where he expressed excitement to build and scale the firm’s AI assets. “While I will miss the day to day involvement as an institutional investor in a professional capacity, investing is my passion and so I will definitely remain involved.”
Rick Klutey, Big Blue’s general auditor, chief audit executive, will become the new chief investment officer, replacing Chaudhari. Klutey held various leadership roles in the company’s treasury department.
IBM likes to rotate its leadership into different functions, Chaudhari said. Companies that do this see it as an opportunity to improve team performance and strengthen the skill set and contribution of employees. Talent from within develops the organization without the need to hire new staff.From 1997 to 2000, Chaudhari worked as a software engineer for both Citigroup and Intel, and has a degree in engineering and an MBA in Analytic Finance and Economics from University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. His move comes at a time when IBM is enhancing its AI business, and has been working on establishing its blockchain division over the past several years, according to its website.
Industry insiders are pondering whether IBM will be harnessing the chief investment officer’s palette of skills to develop an artificial intelligence tool for portfolio management.
Related Stories:
Harshal Chaudhari 2018 Innovation Awards Profile
Christian Ministry Pension’s New CIO Is Former IBM-er
Supreme Court to Investigate IBM Stock Drop’s Influence on Corporate 401(k) Plan