Gary Cohn, Former Trump Adviser, Joins IBM

By Matt Grossman 

International Business Machines Corp. appointed Gary D. Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs executive and economic adviser to President Trump, as its vice chairman and member of its executive leadership team as the tech company tries to revive its fortunes.

Mr. Cohn will work on business development, public advocacy, client services and client-relationship management, IBM said.

Mr. Cohn served as director of the National Economic Council from Mr. Trump's inauguration until April 2018. He was president and chief operating officer for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. from 2006 until 2016.

He is also co-chairman of Cohn Robbins Holdings Corp., a blank-check company that launched an initial public offering in September. Blank-check companies, which enjoyed a banner year in 2020, have no business operations, but raise funds with the goal of merging with a private company to make the target company publicly traded.

"My commitment to Cohn Robbins Holdings Corp. is unwavering," Mr. Cohn said in a Twitter message Tuesday morning.

In March 2018, Mr. Cohn said he would resign from his White House job shortly after Mr. Trump announced steel and aluminum tariffs that Mr. Cohn had opposed. Mr. Cohn had also criticized the president's response to violence in Charlottesville, Va., in the summer of 2017, but later that year played a key role in overseeing tax policy changes that Mr. Trump championed.

Write to Matt Grossman at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 05, 2021 10:27 ET (15:27 GMT)

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