IBM tech guru Wladawsky-Berger to retire

Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM's head of technical strategy and innovation, said he intends to retire from his employer of 37 years this June.

In his blog on Monday, Wladawsky-Berger said he will work with IBM on a part-time emeritus basis after he officially retires.

Wladawsky-Berger was involved in setting IBM's direction in many emerging technologies, including the Internet, Linux, autonomic computing, and grid computing.

Most recently, he has become an advocate of the role that virtual presences can play in business. Last month, he (and his avatar) did an interview with CNET News.com in Virtual Life.

Among the media, he became a well regarded representative of IBM during a time, under CEO Lou Gerstner, that the company turned around its fortunes and demonstrated it could capitalize on new technologies.

At a recent MIT conference on technology and education, Wladawsky-Berger sought to dispel this reporter's skepticism of virtual presences like Second Life, particularly in business.

He passionately described examples where advanced visualizations could in fact make a big difference, such as designing or testing new car designs.

"Clearly, that is not bull...," he said. "Just think of it like the early days of the Web."

Who could doubt it then? It was Irving talking.