About Paula Summa

Paula Summa, BBA '78, MBA '84
General Manager, ibm.com
Sixteenth Annual Lubin Alumni Achievement Award Honoree

2008 Honoree Paula Summa, BBA '78, MBA '84 General Manager, ibm.com

Paula Summa has held various financial roles in her career with IBM, working with the various geographies and business units, primarily in the Sales and Distribution (S&D) organization. Her first executive role was as director of accounting for U.S. Operations in S&D, then moved to director of financial planning for IBM's Worldwide Marketing and Services Units.

Ms. Summa's talents were soon leveraged as controller for IBM Latin America from 1994-1996. In May 1996, she became the first chief financial officer of IBM's Global Small and Medium Business organization. This was followed by assignments in the Global Business Partner Organization and ibm.com as vice president of finance and operations. From January 1999-October 2002, Ms. Summa was promoted to vice president of finance and operations for IBM Global Financing. She then assumed the same role for the Global S&D organization, where she led a staff of 7000 financial professionals until January 2006, when she was promoted to general manager of ibm.com.

Ms. Summa is a member of the IBM Integration and Values Team, a recipient of the IBM YWCA award (Women's Achiever Award), and also a member of the advisory board at Pace University's Lubin School of Business. She was also featured in the June 2008 issue of CFO magazine as one of 25 women expected to be among the next generation of top finance executives.

Ms. Summa graduated from Pace University, summa cum laude with a BBA degree in accounting. While working at IBM, she received an MBA in finance from Pace University, where she graduated with honors.