Samuel Palmisano, head of IBM Corp’s services subsidiary has been named general manager of the PC Company. The position was vacated by Bruce Claflin who went off to run DEC’s PC business some months ago. Senior VP and group executive Robert Stephenson, to whom Palmisano reports, has had primary responsibility for the unit since then. Palmisano was president and CEO of IBM’s successful Integrated Systems Solutions Corp and is replaced by Douglas Elix, formerly general manager of IBM Australia/New Zealand. Elix reports to Dennie Welsh, general manager of IBM’s $20bn Global Services operation. The PC Co suffered an estimated $1 billion loss in 1994, though under Richard Thoman – now IBM CFO – and Stephenson, the unit has clawed its way back to break- even or better.
