James H. Comfort

Dr. Comfort, a native of St. Paul, Minnesota, received his BS in Chemical Engineering from Michigan Tech in 1983, and his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1988. He joined IBM Research in 1988 and worked across the boundaries from Research to Systems Technology Group on new product introduction in a variety of development and product management roles. Jim held a number of executive positions within IBM Systems Group, spanning technology development, systems development and product line management, as well as roles in IBM Corporate Strategy. From 2008-10 he was part of the Enterprise Initiatives team in Corporate Strategy, defining IBM's cloud computing strategy from technology, offerings and business model perspectives.Since 2010 he has been shaping the definition of the IBM Cloud Platform for transformation of IBM's service delivery operational model. He is currently General Manager, IBM Cloud Services, with responsibility for development and global delivery of the IBM Cloud Infrastructure, Foundational and Managed Services inclusive of the acquisition of Softlayer, an IBM Company.

From the program for the 2015 Chemical Engineering Academy Induction