Jonathan Adashek 

Chief Communications Officer, SVP Marketing & Communications 
IBM
US

Jonathan Adashek joining IBM as its chief communications officer in January 2020 was one of the biggest industry people move stories of that year. Assuming one of the business world’s highest profile communications jobs following the departure of Ray Day, Adashek stepped up to lead a department that Day purposefully upended upon joining the company two years earlier, including overhauling IBM’s longstanding PR agency relationships, in an effort to rally the flagging business.

Less than two years into the job, Adashek overhauled the company’s comms function, dividing the team into groups focused on different parts of the tech giant’s business. Under the campaign-driven approach, IBM’s in-house communicators — who have traditionally supported initiatives across the business — now focus on just one of five areas: AI, hybrid cloud, quantum and innovation, good tech, and business growth. Previously, assignments were handled on more of an ad hoc basis. All of which is in keeping with Adashek’s goal of having the function reflect the future of the 112-year-old technology giant as it positions itself as a 21st century computing company and ensuring that the comms team is “in lockstep with the business and the CEO’s priorities.” In early 2022, Adashek added oversight of IBM’s marketing division to his responsibilities.

Adashek joined IBM 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. He 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.