Gary Burnette

Gary is a business and technology executive with over 35 years of experience. He is currently Vice President of Data and AI Consult at Kyndryl, a consulting and managed service global business. In this role, Gary ‘s focus is on transforming the processes and profession of Consulting at Kyndryl and introducing AI infused tools and processes to improve enablement. He is drawing on his own experience as a Chief Data Officer, Chief Information Officer and Business/Technology transformation leader and innovator.

When Kyndryl formed as a company in 2021, Gary became its first Chief Data Officer coincident with head of enterprise architecture. He established a data culture within Kyndryl defining and implementing an enterprise level data platform, data governance policies and practices and a strategy for visualization all laying the groundwork to enable the firm for AI solutions.

His enterprise architecture team established the principles and approach necessary for a successful technology separation from Kyndryl’s parent company, opting for a cloud-first, platform driven IT estate while simplifying processes and the IT portfolio from 1800 applications to just over 350.

Prior to Kyndryl, Gary spent over 30 years at IBM holding management and executive roles in product development, product marketing, business and IT operations, CIO and CDO functions. He was most recently VP of Data Governance at IBM while developing and delivering data products in support of IBM’s Mergers and Acquisition, Sales and Product Support Divisions.

In his last role as a divisional CIO, Gary held responsibilities for IBM’s global sales and marketing teams, some 45,000 professionals around the globe. His direct team of nearly 3000 people delivered CRM related solutions, KPIs and enablement in partnership with the business with a focus on efficiency and a drive toward increasing revenue per rep.

Gary volunteers his time in support of indigenous communities in the US and Canada and served six years on the Board of Directors for AISES (the American Indian Science and Engineering Society) of which he was chair four of those years. AISES aims to increase the number of indigenous people in STEM courses of study and careers. He still sits on the board for AISES Canada and API, a “fee for service” arm of AISES generating operational funds for the non-profit.

Gary and his wife Sami live in Raleigh, NC. They have two grown sons, two German Shepherd dogs and a cat or two.