IBM has appointed its former chief financial officer, Martin Schroeter, as the boss of its newly separated infrastructure business.

Schroeter will be initially tasked with oversing the formation of the ‘NewCo’ unit, following the company’s decision to spin off its managed infrastructure services business in October.

Following the appointment of Arvind Krishna, and 2019’s Red Hat acquisition, IBM will now focus its attention on the cloud market, with its new business, which has still yet to be named, focusing on the management and modernisation of global IT infrastructure.

«Martin is a world-class leader and is uniquely qualified to drive the long-term success of the new, independent company,» said Krishna. «Martin has the strategic vision and business judgement to realise NewCo’s enormous potential as the global leader in managed infrastructure services. He is an inspiring, results-driven executive and the right CEO to lead NewCo through the spin-off process and beyond.»

IBM have a history of promoting executives from within. Like Krishna, and his predecessor Ginni Rometty, the role of CEO has often gone to company veterans that have held a number of positions over a period of decades.

Schroeter, who joined in 1992, is returning to the company having left in June 2020. Before his departure, he held a number of executive roles in sales and marketing, most notably CFO of the company.