Bridget Van Kralingen

Bridget Van Kralingen, Senior Vice President, IBM Global Business Services 

Ms. Bridget van Kralingen has worldwide responsibility for Global Business Services (GBS). She is responsible for strategy, execution and business results of IBM’s consulting, systems integration and application services business across more than 170 countries. GBS has over 100,000 consultants and practitioners helping clients in all major industries integrate IT with business insight to create and deliver value for their customers and shareholders. 

Previously, Bridget was General Manager of IBM North America responsible for revenue, profit and client satisfaction for the full range of IBM's business in the Unites States and Canada. Before that, she led Global Business Services in Northeast Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Bridget has over 20 years of consulting experience and joined IBM in April 2004 as Global Managing Partner of the Financial Services Sector for IBM’s Business Consulting Services. She joined from Deloitte Consulting, where she was Managing Partner of the Financial Services Sector and a Partner for 10 years. She is a qualified psychologist and began her career as a researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

Bridget is a member of the Board of Directors of the Royal Bank of Canada. She also serves on the advisory board of Catalyst, a non-profit organization that expands opportunities for women in business.

Bridget sponsors IBM’s pro-bono initiative in Microfinance to bring basic financial services to the ‘bottom of the pyramid’. The efforts have resulted in the launching of a cloud-based microfinance technology platform for Latin America, building an open source microfinance core banking application for microfinance institutions with the Grameen Foundation, designing loan products and the operating model to aid the former Deputy President of South Africa in the creation of a new microfinance institution.

In 2011, Bridget was named to Fortune’s "50 Most Powerful Women in Business" list. She was named by Euromoney as one of the 100 most influential people in Finance in 2005 and one of Consulting Magazine’s Top 25 Consultants for 2006.

Bridget holds a Masters degree in Commerce from the University of South Africa and Bachelors and Honours degrees in Commerce from the University of Witwatersrand.