Jim Whitehurst


James Moon "Jim" Whitehurst is an American business executive. He is the current President at IBM and chair of the board at Red Hat, and previously Chief Executive Officer at Red Hat and Chief Operating Officer at Delta Air Lines. Prior to working at Delta in 2001, he served as Vice President and Director of the Boston Consulting Group and held various management roles at its Chicago, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Atlanta offices.
During his time at Delta between 2005 and 2007, Whitehurst oversaw the company's recovery from bankruptcy, as well as its struggle against US Airways in 2006, who had repeatedly proposed mergers to the company.
In 2013, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory appointed Whitehurst as a member and vice-chairman of the North Carolina Economic Development Board. In 2014, Whitehurst was selected as the recipient of the NC State Park Scholarships program's William C. Friday Award.

Early life

Born in Georgia in 1967, Whitehurst grew up in Columbus, Georgia. He graduated from Rice University in Houston, Texas in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Economics. He also attended University of Erlangen–Nuremberg in Erlangen, Germany, spent a year of his undergraduate education in the General Course at the London School of Economics, and received an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Career

After working for the Boston Consulting Group throughout 1989 to 2001, Whitehurst began working for Delta Air Lines, where he was Senior Vice President, and later Chief Network and Planning Officer. He was appointed by then-CEO Gerald Grinstein in 2005 as Chief Operating Officer, where he oversaw the company's bankruptcy and recovery from an attempted takeover from US Airways. Whitehurst became a prominent figure in the campaign known as "Keep Delta My Delta", having believed in the integrity of the company and its employees enough to resist the merger proposal and resolve the bankruptcy. He left the company on good terms in 2007.
Whitehurst then joined Red Hat as CEO in December, 2007.
Following IBM's acquisition of Red Hat, later in January 2020 it was announced that Whitehurst will be appointed president of IBM on 6 April.

Personal life

Jim Whitehurst is married and has two children.

Publications

Whitehurst's first book, The Open Organization: Igniting Passion and Performance, was published in 2015 by Harvard Business Review.