Colin Parris is at the forefront of GE’s transformation into the world’s leading Digital Industrial company. He leads a team of software, systems, and analytics experts researching the ways data can impact industry. His role encompasses partnerships with GE’s businesses, partners, and clients.
Before GE, Colin was the Vice President, Systems Research in the IBM Research Division responsible for creating innovative, market changing technologies, systems, and system software that provide market leadership for IBM’s next generation of mainframe, distributed, and storage systems. He was a member of the IBM Integration and Values Team (top 300 executives worldwide).
In his prior role, Colin was the General Manager for IBM’s Power Systems business in the IBM Systems & Technology Group (STG). In this role he was responsible for all of Power Systems’ business operations including the delivery of the multi-billion dollar revenue and budget objectives. This responsibility included marketing, sales, development, and customer support. The Power Systems business encompasses all of the server, operating systems, and systems software sales and delivery associated with the UNIX, IBMi, and Linux marketplaces. In this role he was also a member of the IBM Performance Team (top 60 executives worldwide).
Colin was Vice President and Business Line Executive, Power Systems, and Vice President, Systems Software Development and Lab Services, both in the Systems & Technology Group. Colin has held executive roles in several other IBM organizations– he was Vice President of Industry Solutions in IBM Research, where he was responsible for defining and leading IBM Research’s industry strategy developing new, industry-transformational, leading edge, technology solutions. He was also Vice President, Strategic Growth Development, where he was responsible for the commercialization of the Blue Gene Supercomputer, and Vice President, Technology, in which his responsibilities included leading the IBM Corporate Technology Team that oversees all of IBM’s current and future technology directions.
He has also held roles as Director, Communication Sector Solutions and WW Linux Integration Centers in the IBM Software Group, Director, OS/2 and Solutions Technology in the IBM Software Group, Vice President, Strategy and Solution Management, in Tivoli Systems, and the Director of Network Architecture at the Prodigy Services Company.
He has also had several research positions at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center and at AT&T Bell Laboratories where he has published numerous technical papers in the areas of network management, multimedia systems, and mobile agents and has 6 patents.
Colin received a Doctorate of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley (Ph.D.E.E.), a Masters in the Science of Management (M.S.M.) from Stanford University (as a Sloan Fellow), a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley (M.S.E.E.C.S.), and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering at Howard University (B.S.E.E.). He has also received various technical and community honors and awards.