Washington College Hosts IBM Executives for Talks to Mark 100th Anniversary of “Big Blue”

CHESTERTOWN, MD—Washington College welcomes three IBM executives to campus Wednesday, Nov. 2 to mark the 100th anniversary of a company that has transformed the business world and remained vital through a century’s worth of technological and social challenges. This event, entitled “IBM at 100: An American Icon's Global Impact on Business and Corporate Citizenship” will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Decker Theatre, Gibson Center for the Arts.

The moderator will be Norris Commodore ’73, a graduate of Washington College and member of its Board of Visitors and Governors who is Director for Worldwide Contracts and Negotiations at IBM. He will introduce two IBM colleagues as speakers: Catherine Lasser, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of the Global Distribution Sector of IBM Sales and Distribution; and Sally Scott Marietta, Program Manager for Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs. Lasser and Marietta will paint a picture of IBM that includes both technology and corporate social responsibility.

IBM, often called “Big Blue,” ranks 18th on the 2011 Fortune 500 list and is first on Fortune’s list of Information Technology Services firms. As a recent article in USA Today points out, “IBM has consistently bet on the introduction of new technology, from time clocks, butcher scales and coffee grinders; to punch-card machines and typewriters; to tape storage, mainframes and personal computers; to acquiring the consulting arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers; and, now, to smart social media.”

Catherine C. Lasser joined IBM in 1978 and has held both technical and leadership positions during her career. In her current role, she links the company’s technical expertise with consumer needs to get real-world solutions into the market quickly. She holds a BA in mathematics and computer science from SUNY Binghamton and an MBA in Finance from Iona College.

Sally Scott Marietta directs IBM’s community engagement and corporate citizenship in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Prior to joining IBM, she was Executive Director of the Maryland Economic Development Commission and, before that, vice president of The Greater Washington Board of Trade. She serves on the boards of several major grant-making groups and is a member of the Steering Committee of the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education. She also is active in the Roundtable’s Tapping America’s Potential Coalition and its Business Coalition for Student Achievement.

The evening with IBM is sponsored by the Business Management Department, the Mathematics and Computer Science Department, the Global Perspectives: Research and Writing Program, the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the Sigma Beta Delta Business Honor Society, and Washington College Students in Free Enterprise (WC SIFE). It is free and open to the public.