Jeff Smith is IBM's chief information officer, where he focuses on creating an Agile culture to enable the innovation and pace of the best small technology companies with the scale of IBM. Jeff believes the best ideas come from the people doing the work, so his organization strategy centers around creating small, self-directed teams that are loosely coupled and tightly aligned around Agile practices. His leadership beliefs focus on providing clarity of purpose for his teams, building a productive work environment, and inspiring diversity of thought and collective wisdom to solve problems in unconventional ways. Jeff has 30 years' corporate experience and has held senior executive roles in a number of companies, including Telstra Corporation and Honeywell. Prior to IBM, Jeff was CEO of Suncorp Business Services, where he was responsible for the group's technology, analytics, real estate, finance, procurement, CRO, and BPO/ITO operations. Jeff also led the technology transformation of deploying new banking and insurance platforms while driving the digitization of the entire company. A native of Ohio, Jeff holds a bachelor’s degree in applied science from Miami University and an MBA from San Jose State University. He has served on the Australian Fulbright Commission awarding Australian postgraduate scholarships to US universities.