Joining IBM as an engineer in 1990, Arvind rose to become a senior VP of its cloud and cognitive software in 2015 and took the reins as CEO in April 2020. He is credited for the landmark deal to acquire enterprise open-source leader Red Hat for a record $34 billion, the largest software acquisition in history. Arvind received his bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and completed his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In June 2020, IBM announced its withdrawal from the facial recognition business, citing problems with racial bias. Arvind has actively supported racial justice initiatives and has called upon the U.S. Congress to do the same. IBM’s efforts in combating COVID-19 are driven by its technological front. The company is a member of the COVID-19 High-Performance Computing Consortium, a collaboration between private industries and government agencies to advance research initiatives.