Sophie Vandebroek, who was CTO to Xerox and left a month ago, has been appointed Chief Operating Officer for IBM Research.
Xconomy reported that Belgium-born Vandebroek has landed a new job at IBM Research one month after leaving Xerox. Xconomy’s founder and Editor in Chief, Bob Buderi, received an email from Vandebroek which said: “My role includes being responsible for the IBM Research strategy, including the annual Global Technology Outlook IBM creates, as well as for the operations of the 12 research Labs around the globe,” and Buderi commented that “she is going back to her roots” as she “started her career at IBM Research”.
Vandebroek is quoted as saying: “I am so, so lucky to re-join IBM at such an exciting time in history. The next 5 to 10 years will be totally amazing as cognitive technologies and the IoE [Internet of Everything] become ubiquitous and result in personalised healthcare, access to personalised education, security, financial inclusion for all, environmentally friendly cities, and more. IBM’s technologies will make a positive difference in the lives of billions of people.”
Buderi noted that the new COO will have more scope at IBM than she did at Xerox and that “IBM’s annual revenues in 2015 (the last full year reported) were $81.7 billion, compared to about $18 billion for Xerox” and that IBM’s research laboratories number 12 worldwide whereas Xerox has five.
In another email Vandebroek wrote: “The business impact of the research attracted me, including IBM’s leadership in cognitive computing (not only for healthcare, but also for security, IoT, education, and more)… block-chain, quantum computing, microelectronics, and more. These technologies, combined with the power of the business groups and global sales teams, truly position IBM to win and impact the world.”
The new IBM Research COO will work from the city of Boston and said that she is looking forward to it.