Gary Cohn, former President of Goldman Sachs and economic advisor to President Donald Trump, joins IBM as vice chairman.
Cohn announced the move in a tweet Tuesday morning in which he said it was “an honor” to be a member of the company’s board of directors.
IBM shares rose around 1.2% after the news.
CNBC’s Jim Cramer said the announcement was “an exciting move for IBM. Gary can be a change agent.”
In the new role, Cohn will act as advisor to IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, who took over the company in April with a promise to expand its reach into artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
That could make Cohn an unusual choice, given that his experience is mostly in finance and economics. He served Goldman as chairman and chief operating officer for nearly 11 years before accepting Trump’s appointment as director of the National Economic Council.
While at the White House, he helped Shepherds through the record tax cut package in 2017, but later ran into conflict with the president. He left the advisory position in April 2018 and was replaced by former CNBC host Larry Kudlow.
Upon returning to the private sector, Cohn partnered with Cliff Robbins to create Cohn Robbins Holding Corp and set up a special purpose vehicle (SPAC). Despite accepting the position at IBM, Cohn said he would continue with Robbins.
