Samuel J. Palmisano Elected IBM Chairman

Samuel J. Palmisano Elected IBM Chairman 

    ARMONK, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--October 29, 2002--

The IBM board of directors today elected Samuel J. Palmisano chairman
of the board, effective January 1, 2003. Mr. Palmisano will succeed
Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., who will retire from the company and from the
IBM board of directors at the end of this year.

Mr. Palmisano, 51, is currently IBM's president and chief executive
officer. He succeeded Mr. Gerstner as CEO of IBM in March 2002. He
served previously as IBM's president and chief operating officer,
after holding senior leadership positions in virtually all of IBM's
operating units. He became a director of IBM in July 2000. As of
January 1, 2003, Mr. Palmisano's title will be IBM chairman, president
and chief executive officer.

Since becoming CEO, Mr. Palmisano has led major initiatives to
position the company for profitable growth and industry leadership.
Among the key initiatives are: the acquisition of
PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting and several software companies, the
pending sale of the hard disk drive business, a major realignment of
the microelectronics unit, and the outsourcing of desktop PC
manufacturing.

A graduate of The Johns Hopkins University, Mr. Palmisano joined IBM
in 1973 as a sales representative in Baltimore, Maryland.

Mr. Gerstner, 60, led IBM through one of the most dramatic turnarounds
in business history. Under his stewardship, IBM reclaimed its
reputation as a technology leader and the industry's premier provider
of integrated solutions. The company coined the term e-business and
played a leadership role in defining the impact of networking
technologies on business and society. In addition, IBM built its
services business while gaining market share in servers, software,
storage and microelectronics. IBM has received more U.S. patents than
any other company for nine consecutive years.

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   Time of Receipt (offset from UTC): 20021029T143300+0000