Louis Gerstner, credited with rescuing IBM from crisis, has died aged 83, the company said.
He led IBM as chair and CEO from 1993 to 2002 during a period of intense competition.
Gerstner became the first outsider to run IBM and halted plans to break the company apart.
Instead, he kept IBM integrated, arguing clients wanted complete solutions, not fragmented products.
The strategy helped stabilise the business as rivals such as Microsoft gained ground in personal computing.
Gerstner also dropped IBM’s OS/2 operating system to refocus resources.
Before IBM, he led American Express and RJR Nabisco, and later chaired the Carlyle Group.
IBM’s current CEO said Gerstner’s leadership reshaped the company by prioritising customers and execution.
