IBM Brazil announces first female general manager

IBM Brazil has announced Katia Vaskys as its new general manager, following a number of changes at senior level within the company involving Brazilian executives.

Vaskys is the first woman to lead the IBM operations in Brazil. She replaces Tonny Martins, who was promoted to general manager for IBM Latin America in October 2020, a role previously held by Ana Paula Assis. Assis was the first female to manage the company in the region and moved on to lead client transition at "NewCo," the looming spinoff from Big Blue that will focus on business infrastructure services.

With 25 years of experience in the technology sector, IBM's new Brazil leader will be driving the company's hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence strategy. Vaskys joined the company in 2010, and has been responsible for the creation of the company's business analytics and optimization practice at the Global Business Services unit, in addition to leading the firm's Smarter Analytics portfolio.

During her tenure at IBM, Vaskys has also served as the chief executive for industry accounts, coordinating technical and sales teams, and is the executive sponsor of the diversity and inclusion team at the Brazilian subsidiary.

"At a time of inflection in business, with the acceleration of technologies that transform industries and society, it is a privilege and an honor to lead such a diverse and talented team in a company that constantly reinvents itself," Vaskys said.

"I believe in bringing the entire ecosystem together - business partners, startups, developers, and companies - as an essential means to accelerate open innovation in support of a new digital age, based on an open hybrid cloud and AI," she added.

Prior to joining IBM, Vaskys was CEO of Teradata Brazil and held technical roles in consulting and systems architecture at Oracle, SAP and Siebel.