Bulletins

Former Trump official Gary Cohn is joining IBM's board

A former director of the National Economic Council, Cohn will advise CEO Arvind Krishna as he seeks to turn around "Big Blue" with a focus on AI and hybrid cloud computing.

Former Trump official Gary Cohn is joining IBM's board
Image: The White House

Gary Cohn, the former director of President Trump's National Economic Council, is joining IBM's board of directors as a vice chairman.

"IBM is one [of] the world's most important companies, providing technology that helps organizations be agile and resilient in unpredictable times," he said in a tweet.

Cohn, also the former president of Goldman Sachs, will serve as an advisor to CEO Arvind Krishna, who was appointed chairman in December. It's an odd pairing, particularly given Krishna's focus on turning around "Big Blue" by doubling-down on AI and hybrid cloud computing — areas that Cohn likely only worked on tangentially during his decades of experience in finance and economic policy.

Still, it's not uncommon for former White House officials to serve on boards. Nikki Haley, the former UN Ambassador and South Carolina governor, briefly joined Boeing's board of directors before stepping down from the post in March 2020 due to her opposition to a planned federal bailout of the airplane manufacturer.

Joe Williams

Joe Williams is a writer-at-large at Protocol. He previously covered enterprise software for Protocol, Bloomberg and Business Insider. Joe can be reached at JoeWilliams@Protocol.com. To share information confidentially, he can also be contacted on a non-work device via Signal (+1-309-265-6120) or JPW53189@protonmail.com.

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