IBM offspring Kyndryl names CTO, unveils advisory practice

IBM’s Kyndryl took further flight on Monday when the newly spun-off managed infrastructure services unit appointed a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Antoine Shagoury. 

Kyndryl also announced an advisory practice of senior experts to assist customers with designing and deploying advanced technology environments to tackle the increasing demands of a digital world, as per statement from IBM. 

The company has named industry veteran Vic Bhagat as a senior partner of the new advisory practice. 

Shagoury has been a venture partner at Ridge-Lane, a strategic advisory and venture development firm focused on solutions in areas of education, sustainability and information technology.  

Prior to Ridge-Lane, Shagoury served as an executive vice president (EVP) and global chief information officer (CIO) at State Street Corporation, where he served on State Street's management committee and was responsible for managing enterprise-wide technology, transformation and modernization, directly supporting operations in 27 countries.  

Shagoury has also worked as group chief operating officer and CIO at the London Stock Exchange Group, responsible for global operations across capital markets, information and data services, post-trade and technology. 

He has also served as CIO at the American Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange Alternext.  He is a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science (BS) in business administration and a concentration in managed infrastructure services. 

Kyndryl's advisory practice founding member, Vic Bhagat, on the other hand, has been senior vice president and CIO of Verizon Enterprise Solutions, EVP and CIO of EMC, and CIO for several divisions of General Electric, including GE Aviation Services, CNBC, GE Corporate, and GE India and Southeast Asia. 

He is currently president of Matrix CvC, advising enterprises on operational excellence and digital process transitions, and has been an active investor and advisor to many startup organisations that are focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning.  A native of Wellesley, Massachusetts, Bhagat is a graduate of the University of Louisville with a BS in information systems and marketing. 

"Kyndryl has a deep reservoir of data and advanced IP, and we are adding experts with experience in managing the world largest and most demanding IT environments... As Senior Partner, Vic's perspective and experience will be a great asset to Kyndryl customers as they modernize and manage their broad IT ecosystem,” Elly Keinan, group president of Kyndryl said. 

To focus on high-margin cloud computing, IBM is set to separate its managed infrastructure services unit from the global technology services division to a new publicly listed company, Kyndryl, in a $5 billion estimated exercise.  

IBM expects that once Kyndryl starts to function in the end of 2021, on a standalone basis, it will be twice the scale of its nearest competitor. Kyndryl had already engaged with 4,600 customers and has a backlog of over $60 billion as of April.