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As Mathew Bjorngaard, Business Planning Analyst, IBM Finance and Operations explains, IBM Finance’s presence has grown tremendously in Rochester over the past decade and is now one of the largest finance hubs within IBM. “When I began working for IBM in 2015, we had over 400 finance employees in Rochester,” Bjorngaard says. “As the organization has continued to
IBM Summit Super Computers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
For instance, despite the pandemic, IBMers never stopped giving of their time, talents, and monetary gifts, pledging more than $1.2 million during IBM’s annual employee charitable contribution campaign and volunteering nearly 32,000 hours generating thousands of dollars in grants given to area non-profits. “Throughout its 65-year history, the legacy of IBM’s employees has made it possible to build upon their skills and reinvent themselves as the needs for technology continue to change,” Johnson says. “IBM Rochester’s employees recognize their future relies not only on what is happening in the tech world today but to continue working to create innovations that truly matter in the world tomorrow.”
grow, we’ve also seen an increase in job opportunities, as more roles have come to Rochester that were previously in our corporate location (in New York). The increase in upper-level jobs has also meant a bigger role for Rochester within IBM.” During his tenure with the company, Bjorngaard has seen the IBM Finance team receive more opportunities to have a bigger impact in strategic decision making. This initiative, called “Finance Accelerate” began about 18 months ago and aims to bring Agile principles to the Finance organization with the goal of employees having less siloed work and instead assisting in the end-to-end processes within the business. “This has allowed Finance folks to get a better understanding of the business and have more opportunities to provide real impact on business decisions, as we work more closely with IBM leadership and those making strategic decisions,” Bjorngaard says. “By no means has the ‘Finance Accelerate’ initiative been easy – there have been many starts, stops, and stumbles, but it’s just another example of IBM’s willingness to try new things to improve the company.” When all is said and done, the most important part of IBM Rochester is the IBMer. As Johnson points out, beyond the innovation happening behind the blue walls in northwest Rochester, IBMers are committed to the communities in which they live.
| Advantage Magazine 8
July 2021
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