IBM, one of the biggest corporate business and computer companies in the world announced today that its new chief executive will be a woman.  There was a time when the conservative, male-centric company was not all that welcoming to women executives.  But newly-appointed Virginia Romett, a successful Executive Vice President who has come up through the ropes of IBM breaks the glass ceiling at IBM once and for all after successfully supervising the corporate giant’s merger with Price Waterhouse Cooper Consulting,  and proving herself as a strong leader in opening up new business.  She succeeds Samuel J. Palmisano, who will remain as chairman, at the start of next year.

Rometty joins a league of well-prepared women who are being handed the reins of giant U.S. companies in tough economic times.  The New York Times made a short list today:

The selection of Ms. Rometty for the top job at I.B.M. will make her one of the highest-profile women executives in corporate America, joining a small group of women chief executives that includes Ursula Burns of Xerox, Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo, Ellen J. Kullman of DuPont and Meg Whitman of Hewlett-Packard.

It is hard to miss the interesting dynamic emerging in U.S. boardrooms.   At a time when America’s economic future is in crisis, national

boards of directors are recognizing the potential of highly-skilled women at the table and turning to them in times which are growing more and more desperate.

Read about Ms. Romett, and see how well-prepared she is for the challenge.

It is time for the wisdom of women to help re-set the priorities of America. For skilled and proven women to work constructively and shoulder to shoulder with men in seeking solutions in the economy, in politics, education, healthcare, and anywhere where the futures of our families are at stake.

Now let’s see if our Senate and House leadership can start thinking the same way?

Take a look at the women taking leadership roles in ALL industries, as listed in Fortune’s Most Powerful Women issue.   Here’s the rest of the New York Times’ story on Ms. Rometty:

The selection of Ms. Rometty for the top job at I.B.M. will make her one of the highest-profile women executives in corporate America, joining a small group of women chief executives that includes Ursula Burns of Xerox, Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo, Ellen J. Kullman of DuPont and Meg Whitman of Hewlett-Packard.

Gender, according to Mr. Palmisano, did not figure into Ms. Rometty’s selection. “Ginni got it because she deserved it,” Mr. Palmisano said in an interview, using the informal first name by which she is known to friends and colleagues.

Selected In Tough Competition And Tough Times

“It’s got zero to do with progressive social policies,” Mr. Palmisano added.

Ms. Rometty, who graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in computer science, joined I.B.M. in 1981 as a systems engineer. She quickly moved up to a series of management jobs, working with clients in industries including banking, insurance, telecommunications, manufacturing and health care.

For much of the last decade, Ms. Rometty has led the growth and development of I.B.M.’s huge services business. She championed the purchase of the big business consulting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, for $3.5 billion in 2002. Ms. Rometty was then put in charge of coordinating the work of the acquired firm’s consultants with I.B.M.’s technologists, to tailor services and software offering for specific industries. “She did the deal, and she made it work,” Mr. Palmisano said.

In 2009, Ms. Rometty became senior vice president and group executive for sales, marketing and strategy. Part of the job is leading the I.B.M. drive to sharply increase its business in overseas growth markets, like China, India, Brazil and dozens of emerging markets, including several African nations. Such markets now account for 23 percent of I.B.M.’s revenue, and should reach 30 percent by 2015, the company projects.

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Filed under: Economy, Featured, Inside The KC, Politics by Sonja Eddings Brown, Oct 25, 2011