Crains New York - June 24, 2013 - (Page 13)

She’s come a long way But don’t call her baby! Media stereotyping still hurts women 2011 Rank #29 # Virginia Rometty Chairwoman and CEO, IBM VIRGINIA ROMETTY DIDN’T just crash through the glass ceiling last year when she became the first female chairwoman, chief executive and president of tech giant IBM. She soared into the inner sanctum of corporate America:The tech firm is the 19th-largest company in the U.S., and Ms. Rometty is one of only two women to lead a Fortune 20 company. (The other is HewlettPackard’s Meg Whitman.) Ms. Rometty’s reach in the corridors of power is vast: IBM does business with 98% of the Fortune 500 companies. Earlier this year, while speaking at the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, where she is a board member, Ms. Rometty outlined different barriers the tech industry must surmount.The 56-year-old said the industry must harness data to make it more useful for business decisions. “The challenge, as always, is culture—changing our entrenched ways of thinking, acting and organizing,” she said. To that end, the $104.5 billion company is working with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to help doctors create individual diagnostic and treatment options for their patients. The initiative will use IBM’s Watson, the computer famed for its winning stint on Jeopardy!, along with the hospital’s expertise. Ms. Rometty said that in the future, computers will need to be more like Watson and boast cognitive abilities. The deal with Memorial Sloan-Kettering, where Ms. Rometty sits on the board, is one of many programs IBM has in New York City and around the world that are devised for predictive analysis. Among its others are partnerships with the city’s police, fire and homelessservices departments that help them mine data to carry out their roles more effectively. But to make sure that IBM has the talent it needs to serve its customers, Big Blue is placing major bets on education,with one big wager starting here.Nearly two years ago, it joined with the city’s Department of Education to help establish a new public school, called Pathways in Technology Early College High School, or P-TECH. The school prepares students for careers in the tech industry.After being mentored by an IBM executive,they graduate with an associate’s degree as well as a high-school diploma. The initiative has been so successful that President Barack Obama praised it in his State of the Union address earlier this year, it’s been replicated in Chicago, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo plans to expand it statewide. —theresa agovino LISTEN to a discussion at CrainsNewYork.com/podcasts BY THERESA AGOVINO Virginia Rometty and Kirsten Gillibrand are members of two of the most exclusive clubs on the planet. Ms. Rometty, the first female chief executive of IBM, is one of only 20 women heading a Fortune 500 company.Ms.Gillibrand is one of just 20 members of the U.S. Senate who don’t possess a Y chromosome. JPMorgan Chief Financial Officer Marianne Lake, meanwhile, has risen to the elite ranks in finance, earning the No. 2 spot at the banking juggernaut. Yet the more things change, the more they remain the same. Despite the growing clout of American women in OF EXECUTIVE business, POSITIONS in news artiFortune 500 cles that companies were focus on held by women in 2012 them often note details about their appearance, their personalities and their private lives— details that are rarely included in articles about their male counterparts. Stories about Ms. Rometty routinely note she is a blonde. An NPR feature on Ms. Gillibrand (No. 10) claimed she has a “girly” voice. And according to a magazine piece, Ms. Lake (No. 2) is the single mother of a young son. Quick: What color is former IBM Chief Executive Sam Palmisano’s hair? Is Sen. Charles Schumer a baritone or tenor? And how many kids does JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon have? References to hair color and family are child’s play compared with the drubbing other notable women on Crain’s list have experienced in media accounts recently. A front-page story in The New York Times painted City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (No. 9) as volatile and vindictive. A month later, as if it were 13.3% See LONG WAY on Page 23 WOMEN ONLINE TO WATCH Crain’s Most Powerful Women sharing lessons learned, go to crainsnewyork.com/50powerfulwomenvideo http://www.CrainsNewYork.com/podcasts http://www.crainsnewyork.com/50powerfulwomenvideo

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - June 24, 2013

Crains New York - June 24, 2013
IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
SMALL BUSINESS
BUSINESS PEOPLE
OPINION
ALAIR TOWNSEND
GREG DAVID
REAL ESTATE DEALS
REPORT: 50 MOST POWERFUL WOMEN IN NEW YORK
CLASSIFIEDS
DIGITAL NY
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - June 24, 2013