5 Things You Didn't Know About IBM's Ginni Rometty

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty is all business and poise as the leader charged with turning around a lumbering American icon. As chief since 2012, Ms. Rometty has pushed to revamp some of IBM’s slowing traditional hardware, software and services businesses, pushing it toward higher-growth areas such as “cloud” computing and “big-data” analytics, according to a page-one article in The Wall Street Journal.

Spending time with Ms. Rometty (rhymes with confetti) reveals some other sides to the CEO:

#1: Ginni Rometty Likes to Be Teacher

At “Think Academy,” which she dreamed up at IBM to give its nearly 400,000 employees sessions on new technologies and ways to work, she insists on giving the first “class” each month. An honors electrical-engineering and computer-science major at Northwestern University, she will give a lesson there as its commencement speaker this spring. She carries a backpack, not a briefcase. She writes in pencil in stacks of school-sized notebooks.

#2: She Gets in Your Face—With a Smile

Ms. Rometty can turn on the charm—and be confrontational—at the same time. At IBM’s investor day, she headed straight for her toughest critic, Toni Sacconaghi, a senior research analyst at Bernstein. Standing in his face at eye-level in her 4-inch heels and grabbing his elbow, she strongly disagreed with him as she smiled. Mr. Sacconaghi says he wasn’t swayed.

#3: She Draws Inspiration From Her Mother

Even in the face of tough criticism and hard work, Ms. Rometty finds strength in the example of her mother, who raised her and her three siblings after her father left. “I know what dark is,” she says. “I’m fearless. My mother taught us to be fearless.”

#4: She Has Some Must-Haves

At all times, she seems to have a Starbucks Venti Chai Tea Misto in hand and a metallic headband holding back her blond shoulder-length hair. One unseen necessity is her scuba-diving gear. Scuba diving for 35 years, Ms. Rometty is a certified rescue diver.

#5: She's an Occasional Golfer

She is the third woman admitted to Augusta National Golf Club, wearing the green jacket for the first time at the latest Masters. She has a 35 handicap, according to GHIN, the official handicap system for golfers, turning in scores ranging from 112 to 144 in 2012 and 2013.