Ginni Rometty Has Broken Glass Ceilings — How Much Is She Worth?

The author of the book Good Power: Leading Positive Change in Our Lives, Work, and World, Ginni Rometty is likely best known as having been IBM's first female chair and CEO. Although she retired from IBM in 2020, she continues to write and teach about how to build a more skilled workforce. How much is Ginni Rometty's net worth, and what is she doing now?

Rometty went from a childhood spent largely in poverty to leading a major technology corporation. Her journey through the ranks at GM and then IBM is part of what her book covers. She also discusses the challenges she faced as the first female CEO of IBM and her philosophy on strong leadership.

The former CEO reportedly earned about $33 million per year while she was the top executive at IBM, and she also held top positions over the previous decades that likely gave her a large net worth. Celebrity Net Worth estimates Rometty's wealth to be about $90 million, although that figure will likely fluctuate along with the stock market since she owns many IBM shares.

Rometty has written of how her father left her mother and abandoned her and her three siblings when she was 15. As she said in an interview with McKinsey, her family was homeless after her parents' divorce, and her mother had only a high school education. "At a really early age, I started to learn by watching that aptitude and access are two different things," Rometty said, noting that her mother found ways to gain education and improve her circumstances.

Rometty worked for a brief time at GM and then in 1981 became a systems analyst for IBM. She held various technical positions and worked her way up the ladder. She was general manager of the global services division and helped negotiate the purchase of Monday for $3.5 billion.

On Jan. 1, 2012, Rometty became the CEO of IBM. Later that same year, on Oct. 1, 2012, she also became the chairman of the board.

Since 1979, Rometty has been married to Mark Anthony Rometty, a private equity investor. They don't have children and live in both New York and Florida.

In the McKinsey interview, Rometty explained that she hadn't planned to write a book or kept papers intending to use them for a book one day. However, she began to recall her career journey and said, "I could tell a story with these pieces that would ladder up and, I hope, give people confidence that they can drive change for themselves, for their family, for work, and eventually for society."

Rometty said that she believes in a "culture of skills first" rather than a company culture focused on programs. She related this belief to her mother's experience and how she needed to gain skills to support her family, and she noticed that many people did not have access to training or skills that could better their lives.

The former CEO said that she cared about young people having the willingness to learn new skills, not so much about whether they had a four-year college degree.

Here are some of the prestigious lists Rometty was named to during her career:

• Bloomberg's 50 Most Influential People list
• Fortune's 50 Most Powerful Women In Business
• TIME's 20 Most Important People In Tech
• Forbes America's Top 50 Women In Tech
• Edison Achievement Award

CNBC reported in 2020, when Rometty's retirement as CEO was announced, that unlike the rest of the tech sector, IBM stock underperformed while she was leading the company. It was the only U.S. tech stock valued at $100 billion or more to lose value during those eight years. IBM dropped 24 percent while she was CEO.

Along with her accolades, Rometty received sharp criticism in the industry as well, being listed among the worst CEOs by the Motley Fool, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and 24/7 Wallstreet.