As IBM Chief Brand Officer, Jon Iwata is responsible for stewardship of the IBM brand and for positioning IBM as a global agenda-setter – shaping the company’s dialogue with the world; engaging its stakeholders; and ensuring that its brand and culture continue to move to the future while remaining authentically IBM.
IBM’s brand is recognized as one of the most valuable in the world, a status that has been enhanced by the development of strategic brand platforms that express the company’s distinctive strategy, purpose and values. Jon is the architect of several of these brand platforms, including e-business, Smarter Planet and Watson.
Jon reports to Ginni Rometty, IBM Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. His team includes communications and corporate citizenship. He is chairman of the IBM Values and Policy Advisory Board and vice chairman of the IBM International Foundation.
Jon joined IBM in 1984 at the company’s Almaden Research Center in Silicon Valley. He was appointed senior vice president, communications, in 2002, and senior vice president, marketing and communications, in 2008. He assumed his current role in 2017.
Jon is a trustee of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. He is a director of the Association of National Advertisers and an advisory board member for the Yale Center for Customer Insights.
Jon is recognized as a leader in both the marketing and corporate communications professions. He is an inductee of the Marketing Hall of Fame, the CMO Club Hall of Fame and the Page Society Hall of Fame, which honors lifetime achievement in public relations and business communications. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from The Seminar, an organization of Chief Communications Officers. He holds a B.A. from the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at San Jose State University.
Jon is co-inventor of a U.S. patent for advanced semiconductor lithography technology.