IBM – commonly known as ‘Big Blue’ – has made Mr. Ghazanfar Ali its Country General Manager in Pakistan. IBM, which has worldwide headquarters in Armonk, New York, United States, is a global brand traditionally recognized for its software and hardware activity. Over recent years the company has transitioned to offering cloud services and it is noted for ‘Watson’ - an Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ‘Big Data’ solution that famously appeared on the US quiz show Jeopardy, and won. The company has a significant presence in Pakistan, with facilities in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. He takes over from Humayun Bashir, who was in the Country General Manager position for sixteen years.
An industry veteran, Mr. Ali can draw on a wealth of experience received from his international and regional roles held during his 39 years at IBM. He was most recently in charge of the company’s Middle East and Africa UNIX business. He achieved a degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) in Lahore, Pakistan, and rounded off his education with qualifications in business management from LUMS, London Business School and INSEAD France.
Mr. Ali’s role at IBM will see him responsible for addressing the “current and future needs of Pakistan business and industry” by overseeing all of the company’s activity in Pakistan, but with a particular focus on cognitive, cloud computing, ‘Big Data’ and analytics, and mobile and security activity.
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