ARMONK, NY — IBM has named Jonathan Adashek as its new chief communications officer, the Holmes Report can reveal, replacing the outgoing Ray Day.

Adashek takes on the role after departing his post as global communications lead for the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, where he reported to chairman Carlos Ghosn prior to his arrest and subsequent escape from Japan to Lebanon. 

Adashek will lead IBM's global communications and corporate citizenship teams, effective January 13. He will report to senior VP of global markets Martin Schroeter.

"His experience working across large global organizations will prove valuable to our evolving communications approach across the company," Schroeter said in a memo to IBM's communications function.

"I am thrilled to be joining IBM and look forward to working alongside its world class communications and corporate citizenship teams. I have long admired the company’s position at the intersection of business and technology across industries and around the world. It is exciting to be part of a team who is going to help ensure communications and citizenship support the business and its objectives," Adashek said in a statement.

Adashek took on the Alliance role in Paris in early 2018, after previously serving as Nissan's chief communications officer in Yokohama. He joined Nissan in 2015 from Microsoft, where he was the GM of communications strategy. Before that, he was EVP of Edelman, where he served as a global client relationship manager.

Day's departure from IBM was revealed earlier this week, after two years in one of the business world's highest-profile communications roles. Like Adashek, Day also hailed from an automotive background when he succeeded Jon Iwata at IBM in December 2017. Since then, the former Ford exec overhauled the company's communications function and its longstanding PR agency relationships, which saw IBM bring in Weber Shandwick to lead its global PR agency lineup.

Natalie Kerris, whom Day hired last year to lead technology and AI communications, is also leaving the company, an IBM spokesperson confirmed.

During his own tenure at Nissan, Adashek revamped Nissan's communications function, hiring Edelman to oversee global PR duties and making a slew of appointments to the team, many of whom have since departed as the automotive giant shifts to a new leadership regime. 

His arrival at IBM comes as the company continues to try to shed its reputation as a shrinking, old-world tech giant. IBM's revenues have seen significant decline over the past decade, thanks in part to the divestment of legacy businesses. However, IBM's shift to cloud computing, supported by the 2018 acquisition of Red Hat, is expected to restore growth, while the company has also made considerable investments in blockchain, AI and quantum computing. 

Additional reporting by Aarti Shah and Diana Marszalek