2023 IBM Fellows

“I’ve worked on a diverse range of products and technologies at IBM over time, and that’s something I really appreciate—every day you learn something new and expand your technical vision,” says Brian Martin. “When I started in 1991, IBM was basically an engineering-led organization, but since then we’ve evolved our focus on understanding our client’s requirements with close collaboration among design, offering management, and development.”

Brian is a thought leader in the -aaS business and has led IBM’s effort to achieve consistent platform experience and operational services across discover, buy and IAM. He has worked across IBM’s -aaS offerings—including IBM Cloud IaaS and PaaS, as well as Data and AI services through Data Platform—and is extending his work across Software’s SaaS and Systems’ XaaS transformation initiatives. Brian has also been a trusted advisor to numerous clients in their journey to cloud.

“IBM was a little late getting into cloud computing, but since then we’ve found our strength in building the most secure cloud, focused on the financial services industry but suitable for anyone needing secure workloads, such as healthcare. My role is to work with our IBM Cloud teams and across IBM to lead the architecture and development of our cloud services.”

As an IBM Fellow, Brian will be CTO of Cloud Platform Services, leading the architecture and strategic direction of Business Support Systems and Operations Support Systems capabilities for our SaaS and XaaS transformation across hybrid multi-cloud delivery and IBM Cloud Platform services. He will own the architecture and strategic direction for the IBM Cloud core and the IBM Cloud Platform-as-a-service layer, and will enable the transformation of our portfolio into -aaS across Systems, Software and CIO.

Brian’s leadership is essential to improving the onboarding experience and consumption of the IBM Cloud and SaaS—and he credits other leaders with helping him grow into his current role. “I’ve been really fortunate to have a great set of mentors and managers who encouraged me and taught me how to be a technical leader,” Brian says. “You need to communicate with clients, with developers, with executives, understand the challenges and technologies, and work across all these different domains.”

Advice to the next generation of engineers? “The advice I give younger people, if they aspire to technical leadership, is to keep learning every day. And in IBM, let your managers know your goals, because we have a great team of managers who will help you get there.”

“I like working on technically difficult projects, even some that are considered impossible,” says Effendi Leobandung. “Developing advanced semiconductor technology for complex chips is incredibly challenging, and IBM is among only a few companies that can do it. I am fortunate to work with world-class talent within IBM and the industry on this endeavor.”

Effendi is a recognized semiconductor technology expert in IBM and worldwide. He was one of the early researchers to propose and demonstrate the current FINFET-like structure. He also led the FINFET research/development and technology definition for IBM 14nm technology, which was deployed in z14, z15 and POWER9. Effendi is a key technical contributor to and currently leads development of IBM Gate-All-Around Nanosheets technology, part of the roadmap for 3nm technology and beyond. Previously, as lead for Transistor Technology Integration, Effendi drove the successful qualifications of multiple IBM CMOS technology nodes. He has over 300 patents covering key transistor technologies such as SOI, FINFET and nanosheets.

As an IBM Fellow, Effendi will be Chief Architect for IBM Hybrid Cloud Semiconductor Transistor Technology and expand his role to lead the integration of new transistor technologies—synergistically with new material, chip packaging and system innovations—to bring the full technology to production ready. His expertise and leadership will enable the delivery of complex transistor technologies needed for IBM and its clients.

“Developing chips for hybrid cloud means optimizing for high performance. Our main challenge is continuing to pack more transistors in a chip to increase its functionality, within the overall power constraint. A decade ago, many predicted that we’d stop scaling the semiconductor technology, but the ingenuity of experts in our area have proven that wrong.

“This is a difficult technology, and it’s almost guaranteed that you will hit some sort of a wall along the way. My advice to everyone is to seek the advice of others—your peers, as well as people more junior or senior than you. You can’t change the laws of physics, but smart people will have ideas on how to get around them, and valuable insights can come from anywhere. But the most important thing is believing in what you do, believing that it matters and enjoying the work.”

“I think we all need to take some risks—informed risks certainly, but to really move the needle, bold moves are necessary,” says Kyle Charlet. “I love the creativity that risk-taking brings to the table.”

Kyle is a widely recognized leader in transforming traditional z/OS environments into modern, cloud-native experiences that can be integrated seamlessly into clients’ hybrid cloud strategies. Through his work bringing APIs, cloud-native development, and Ansible to z/OS, Kyle has applied a series of new market trends to z/OS and overcome technology silos to develop a cohesive strategy. He is actively sought by clients worldwide, from the C-suite to engineers, as a trusted advisor on digital transformations.

“It’s inspiring to me that we’re continuously reinventing the mainframe,” Kyle says. “Z is the most modern platform on the planet, but from the software side, a client might still run decades-old applications on it. We can help them discover new capabilities by interacting with our systems and the services they provide. I sometime envy people who can point to an app people use and say ‘I built that,’ but I help build solutions that enable our clients to build those solutions, and that’s also really cool.”

As an IBM Fellow, Kyle will be CTO for Z Software and lead the z/OS application, data modernization, and hybrid cloud strategies—including all layers of the Z software stack. He will work with Software, Cloud, Research, Red Hat, Consulting and IBM hyperscaler partners to simplify our modernization portfolio and continue transforming the z/OS platform into a cloud-native, platform-as-a-service experience with OpenShift. Kyle’s leadership will help drive enterprise clients’ commitment to z/OS as an essential part of their hybrid strategy.

“I take pride in helping others be successful,” Kyle says. “Whether it’s just listening to their ideas and providing feedback, helping them flesh out an idea or solve a problem, or connecting them to the right teams, I always have a good day when I’m able to go home and feel like I’ve done that.”

“I enjoy logical thinking,” says Natsumi Kurashima. “I’m not sure I would be a great developer or programmer, but I knew I could be a good consultant and today I would describe myself as an architect and a systems engineer. We talk with clients to understand their business challenges, understand their limitations, then decide which technologies to apply, and coordinate a solution for our engineers to build. Putting that all together in a system that works is usually challenging and complex, but also creative and satisfying.”

Natsumi is a recognized leader in digital transformation with deep expertise in systems engineering for complex systems integration. She has been IBM Consulting iX CTO for Japan, driving innovative solution design and delivery by combining experience in design, mobile, cloud and AI, while bringing together technical talent from across IBM. She recalls being assigned to apply IBM’s system engineering methodology to a large project, and being skeptical it would work. “Our global leaders insisted, so I said ‘OK, I will try that,’ because I didn’t have any other choice. It was really challenging, but we succeeded and I developed into a systems engineering leader. That experience decided the rest of my career.”

As an IBM Fellow, Natsumi will be CTO of Business Transformation Services in Japan, responsible for the complex solving and delivery on key engagements that involve emerging technologies, data, analytics, automation and AI. Natsumi will develop offerings and assets that enable IBM’s broader services portfolio to drive efficiencies, and will also serve as CTO for our cross-unit initiative to accelerate IBM Japan's leadership in the Metaverse for the enterprise market.

Natsumi is a strong advocate for women in technology, having started as one of just three women in her university class of 45 studying applied physics. “IBM was my first job after graduation, and I was drawn to the company because of its policy of equal opportunity without differentiation by gender, which was unusual in Japan at the time,” Natsumi says.

“Today, it’s about 50%-50% women and men graduating here in Japan, so we have a lot of women entering junior roles and contributing to IBM’s success. Our challenge now is helping them understand their options—for instance, if they decide to take time away for family reasons, they can return and continue their careers when they’re ready. Senior professionals already know what they want, so my focus is helping younger women develop not just their skills and leadership, but also their personal journeys as women and IT professionals.”