‘It has been a privilege to lead the IBM Ecosystem over the past few years,’ IBM Ecosystem General Manager Kate Woolley says.
IBM Ecosystem General Manager Kate Woolley is leaving the mainframe, cloud and artificial intelligence vendor after about four years as channel chief and five years total with the company.
Woolley revealed that she is leaving Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM in a post on her LinkedIn social media account. She called her departure a “difficult decision” and said she will be “taking some time with family before my next chapter.”
She suggested in her post that Kareem Yusuf–a 26-plus-year IBM veteran named in January as the vendor’s senior vice president of ecosystem, strategic partners and initiatives–is taking over at least some of her responsibilities by saying “the IBM Ecosystem (is in his) safe hands.”
“It has been a privilege to lead the IBM Ecosystem over the past few years, at a time when it is so central to IBM’s growth strategy,” she said. “Thank you to each and every one of you for the partnership and collaboration – we achieved a lot together. … Great things are happening at IBM – with many more successes to come!”
[RELATED: IBM Launches Partner Plus ‘Service’ Track]
IBM’s Woolley Leaves
CRN has reached out to IBM and Woolley for comment.
IBM has other channel executives, including David LaRose, general manager of IBM partner ecosystem sales, who could potentially take on some of Woolley’s responsibilities.
IBM’s 2025 channel goals included adding more qualified partners, increasing the overall percentage of company revenue that comes through the channel and improving partner technical skills, according to CRN’s 2025 Channel Chiefs.
Will Sellenraad, executive vice president and chief revenue officer at Phoenix-based IBM solution provider NucleusTeq, commented on the post to say Woolley “will be missed.”
“Thanks for your huge contribution to the partner channel,” he said.
Sudhir Chaturvedi, global chief growth officer and CEO of North America for NTT Data–No. 2 on CRN’s 2025 Solution Provider 500–thanked Woolley for her leadership in the channel.
“Wish you the very best,” he said.
In her online post, Woolley celebrated her team’s accomplishments, from launching the Partner Plus program to deepening partner relationships and building an embedded AI business with software partners. The post received more than 130 comments and more than 600 reactions as of Wednesday afternoon.
She thanked IBM CEO and Chairman Arvind Krishna and Senior Vice President of Software and Chief Commercial Officer Rob Thomas for “for their support of me personally, and their commitment to the IBM Ecosystem.”
Woolley’s resume included about two years as Krishna’s chief of staff before taking on the channel chief role. She also worked at Bain & Co. for about 14 years, leaving the consulting firm with the title of partner.
She leaves the 114-year-old tech giant as it navigates a mainframe refresh cycle with its solution providers as well as growing adoption of AI platforms including IBM’s Watsonx portfolio.
Well wishes on her LinkedIn post came from a variety of executives in the channel, including:
- LogicMonitor CEO Christina Kosmowski
- PepsiCo Executive Vice President and Chief Science Officer Rene Lammers
- Prolifics Chief Partnerships Officer for Strategic Growth Kirsten Craft
- Johnson Controls Chief Marketing Officer Chris Bontempo
- Former IBM Consulting Chairman Mark Foster
Woolley’s departure comes about a month after Kandyce Tripp, IBM’s managing director for the MSP program and a fellow 2025 CRN Channel Chief, left the vendor to work at Accenture–No. 1 on CRN’s 2025 Solution Provider 500.
Tripp serves as Accenture’s business group lead for ecosystem partners in the security division, according to her LinkedIn account. She had worked at IBM for more than five years and held the MSP program managing director title for about two years.
Other recent channel executive departures include Phil Soper at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Tyler Prince at Snowflake and Juan Fernandez at SuperOps.
