IBM’s Tosca Colangeli appointed Kyndryl’s first UK & Ireland president

The general manager of IBM’s Global Technology Services UK & Ireland, Tosca Colangeli, has been appointed regional president for IBM’s new spinoff company, Kyndryl.

Colangeli, who has been at IBM for almost 27 years, is to head the new Managed Infrastructure Services business for the UK & Ireland.

Hailing from Wirral near Liverpool, Colangeli joined IBM after completing a degree in computer science from the WC College of Science and Technology. Over the last two decades, she has held numerous executive positions throughout the company, including VP of the Systems and Technology Group as well as Computer Services Industry (CSI).

Commenting on her appointment as president, Colangeli said that she is “excited to lead the world-class team at Kyndryl in the UK and Ireland as we support our customers’ technological transformations and manage the technology systems they rely on”.

“Supporting our customers’ technological transformations is a great responsibility because these are the vital systems that power human progress,” she added. “Together we will help them drive strategic change and transformation and lead them to new opportunities."

The decision is yet another example of IBM’s history of promoting executives from within, with the role of CEO often going to company veterans that have held a number of positions over a period of decades. Earlier this year, the company’s former CFO Martin Schroeter was appointed CEO of Kyndryl, a month after IBM CEO Arvind Krishna replaced Ginni Rometty as chairman of the board.

Schroeter, who joined IBM in 1992, said that he is “pleased that Tosca will lead our team in the UK and Ireland”, which he described as “a key market for Kyndryl”.

”Ms. Colangeli has an extensive track record of successfully helping customers address their most important business challenges," said Schroeter. "Ms. Colangeli, who is currently General Manager of IBM’s Global Cloud and Technology Platform Services in the UK and Ireland, has spent more than two decades as a senior technology executive with IBM.

"Her extensive experience includes financial services, continuity and resiliency, sales and systems and technology,” he said, adding that Colangeli “brings deep experience leading the architecture and platform transformation of foundational services that customers rely on to deliver operational excellence and business value”.

Kyndryl, which is expected to become a full-fledged separate company by the end of 2021, is to be organised around IBM’s existing customers in order to ensure that it’s provisioning “senior leadership and the best talent and skills in each market,” according to Schroeter.

The company is to create six global managed services practices in the form of Cloud, Applications, Data & AI, Security & Resiliency, Core Enterprise & zCloud, Network & Edge, and Digital Workplace.