Old hand to steer IBM's operations in N.C.

As top state executive, Greenberg will foster community relations

Bob Greenberg is serious and somewhat guarded. In other words, he personifies IBM.

Who better then to lead the global technology company's largest operations center in the world? Greenberg, 54, was recently named senior state executive for North Carolina. That means he's top boss for the Tar Heel state and oversees IBM's 11,000-employee campus in Research Triangle Park.

As part of his new role, Greenberg will head safety and security for IBM offices throughout the state. He also will assume the role of chief government and community liaison, the public face of the company across North Carolina.

Overseeing operations at RTP is a dynamic opportunity, Greenberg said, because the site represents the full scope of the company, including sales, marketing, research and product development.

"Some of the most interesting roles at IBM are ones where you get an up-close and personal view of what our clients' needs are," he said during a recent interview in a multimedia showroom of IBM servers. Down the hall was another showroom of price scanners, hand-held computers and other hardware and software products designed specifically for big, retail-chain customers.

"All of the collaboration technology, all the ways of sharing knowledge, all the ways of getting [customers] educated is a very big drive here," Greenberg said. "That is what is important to me."

Putting it all together

Greenberg said he has always liked taking things apart and rebuilding them. At home, that translates into home-improvement projects. At work, he gets to deconstruct and rebuild business processes in more efficient ways.

That's the bulk of what Big Blue does as a developer of computer hardware and software applications that run businesses worldwide, and Greenberg has been in the thick of it for three years now as a general manager in IBM's Global Technology Services unit, which is based in Research Triangle Park. He'll keep that job along with his new responsibilities as state executive.

His passion for technology took root in childhood.

"I grew up as part of the Star-Trek generation," he said. "When the Space Age was well under way, I was glued to the set. That gives you a hint right there where I was going."

His abilities in math and science took him to MIT, where he earned a degree in electrical engineering.

"That's where I got the technology bug," said Greenberg.

Cool solutions

MIT is where, as a senior in the mid-'70s, he tackled one of his first major challenges: building a personal computer. After much trial and error, he and a few classmates figured out the PC would only run when a package of frozen vegetables was placed on the processor.

"These things needed a cooling system," Greenberg said.

The soft-spoken executive has revisited the experience tenfold in subsequent decades as IBM and other technology companies developed massive data storage centers, or information repositories that required highly sophisticated ventilation and cooling systems. IBM is now working on designs for "green" data storage -- systems designed to recycle heat energy and substantially reduce power consumption.

Supercomputer lessons

Greenberg joined IBM in 1977 as a junior engineer. By 1991, he was managing the IBM lab that helped create the current generation of supercomputers.

"When you think of the largest supercomputers like Blue Gene or the machines in the chess tournament several years ago, it was my lab that was working on the foundations for those types of systems," he explained. "It's not just hardware, and it's not just software. It's how these things come together and serve practical applications for business clients."

Greenberg declined to comment specifically on the challenges and opportunities he expects to encounter as one of the state's top corporate influencers. Nor would he take a public stance on some of the state's more divisive issues: corporate tax incentives, transportation and education.

He did say that IBM and North Carolina will continue as major stakeholders in each other and that his most central job as state executive is to foster connectivity between the company and surrounding communities and governments.

"I want people to understand what it means to have a driver of innovation based here," he said. "It's important to the economics of the company and the economics of North Carolina. That's my message."