Full biography
Rod Adkins is the senior vice president for Systems and Technology Group, which encompasses all aspects of IBM’s semiconductor, server, storage, system software and retail store solutions businesses, with 2011 revenues of more than $19 billion. The company’s integrated supply chain, which includes global manufacturing, procurement and customer fulfillment, also reports to him.
Mr. Adkins was named to this position in October 2009, after serving as senior vice president, Development and Manufacturing for Systems and Technology Group.
He sits on the IBM Operating Team, responsible for day-to-day marketplace execution, and serves on the Board of Governors for the IBM Academy of Technology.
Over his almost 30-year career with IBM, Mr. Adkins held a number of development and management roles, including running the Desktop and UNIX Systems businesses. He was general manager of Pervasive Computing, Software Group, which under his leadership developed some of the assets that are part of IBM’s Smarter Planet portfolio today.
Inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2005, Mr. Adkins is also a member of the Executive Leadership Council, and the National Society of Black Engineers, which in 2001 awarded him the Golden Torch Award for Lifetime Achievement in Industry. In 2011, Black Enterprise magazine chose Mr. Adkins as its Corporate Executive of the Year, and in 2002, Fortune magazine named him one of the 50 Most Powerful Black Executives in America.
He serves on the national board of the Smithsonian Institution and is on the board of directors for the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering and Pitney Bowes, Inc.
Mr. Adkins holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with an emphasis in physics from Rollins College and a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree from the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
Sept. 2011