Nicholas Donofrio

Nicholas M. Donofrio is a 44-year IBM veteran who led IBM's technology and innovation strategies from 1997 until his retirement in October 2008. He also was vice chairman of the IBM International Foundation and chairman of the Board of Governors for the IBM Academy of Technology. Mr. Donofrio's most recent responsibilities included IBM Research, Governmental Programs, Technical Support & Quality, Corporate Community Relations, as well as Environmental Health & Product Safety. Also reporting to Mr. Donofrio were the senior executives responsible for IBM's enterprise-on-demand transformation. In addition to that strategic business mission, Mr. Donofrio led the development and retention of IBM's technical population and enriched that community with a diversity of culture and thought. In 2008 IBM Chairman Sam Palmisano elected Nick IBM Fellow, the company's highest technical honor.

Mr. Donofrio joined IBM as a college co-op student in 1964 and worked on the memory technology for the legendary IBM System/360 mainframe computing system. After being hired full-time at IBM in 1967, he spent the early part of his career in integrated circuit and chip development as a designer of logic and memory chips.