Louis Gerstner, credited with rescuing IBM from decline, has died aged 83.
The company confirmed his death on Sunday.
Gerstner served as chair and chief executive from 1993 to 2002.
He took charge when IBM was struggling against rivals such as Microsoft and Sun Microsystems.
He was the first outsider to lead IBM.
One of his defining decisions was to abandon plans to break the company into smaller units.
IBM’s current chief executive, Arvind Krishna, said this move saved the business.
He said Gerstner understood clients wanted integrated solutions, not fragmented technology.
Gerstner shifted IBM’s focus from hardware to services and profitability.
He also dropped the OS/2 operating system, ending a direct challenge to Microsoft.
Before IBM, Gerstner led American Express and RJR Nabisco.
After leaving IBM, he became chair of the Carlyle Group.
Colleagues remembered him as demanding, direct, and intensely focused.
His leadership is widely seen as pivotal to IBM’s survival and reinvention.
