IBM names Martin Jetter head of global technology services unit

International Business Machine Corp named Martin Jetter as senior vice president and head of its global technology services unit, effective immediately.

Jetter, who currently heads IBM's operations in Japan, will initially report to Erich Clemanti and will succeed him as head of the services unit on Jan 1, when Clemanti will move to another senior leadership role, according to an internal IBM memo seen by Reuters.

"Martin has led a remarkable transformation of IBM Japan, returning it to growth - as he did previously as our leader of IBM Germany and GBS in Europe. In each case, he and his team have moved quickly to embrace new approaches and new thinking,"IBM CEO Ginni Rometty wrote in the note.

IBM, the world's largest technology services company, is struggling to keep up with shifts in the industry as hardware becomes increasingly commoditized.

The company, once best known for mainframe computers, has been pivoting to higher-margin businesses such as security software and cloud services, but growth in those areas has failed to offset weakness elsewhere.

Last month, IBM paid US$1.5 billion (S$1.9 billion) to Globalfoundries to take over its loss-making semiconductor unit.