Global Business Development Executive
GLBT Market Segment
IBM Corporation

Rob leads the expansion of IBM's sales to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) marketplace in Asia/Pacific, and the sales of IBM's Human Capital Management solutions including diversity to customers in the industrial and public sectors worldwide.

Prior to this role, he was a project executive for IBM's Product Lifecycle Management work on the US Navy's DD(x) next-generation naval destroyer program. From 2000 - 2003, Rob led a worldwide team that managed the Passport Advantage program, the means by which customers of all sizes purchase IBM software products in volume.

In the late 1990s he lived and worked in Sydney, Australia where he led the sales team for IBM's connected e-business products and solutions in the Asia/Pacific markets. Prior to his work in Asia, Rob managed the worldwide sales and market planning for a technology which IBM ultimately decided not to pursue. Rob has also worked in London for three years as Consulting Manager for Large Account Software Sales in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Since 1993, Rob has been actively involved in a corporation-wide diversity task force, addressing issues important to IBM's GLBT employees. IBM announced domestic partner benefits for its US employees in September, 1996
and added "sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression" to its global non-discrimination policy in 2003. He has chaired the task force's global marketplace committee.

In 1991 and 1992, Rob was manager of Developer Support Programs for IBM's Personal Software Products. He had teams in Boca Raton, Florida and Atlanta, Georgia who assisted large and small developers working with OS/2, LAN Systems, pen-based computing, and multimedia. In 1987, Rob joined IBM and worked in human factors / usability. In the System Design and Architecture group, he helped define the long-term vision for IBM's software products. Rob also sold IBM software to the media industry in New York City, was on loan to a large US television network, and was in charge of customer partnerships, working on the early customer involvement program for Distributed Systems Services. For nine months he was technical assistant to the Director of Software Development Programs, developing presentations and working with application developers.

Rob Shook graduated from Wabash College in 1984 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and a minor in computer science. He attended graduate school at Miami University in Ohio to study human factors and ergonomics. After working as an intern at IBM Austin in 1985, he transferred to the University of Texas to study in the Ph.D. program for Human Experimental Psychology. While attending the University of Texas, he worked as a researcher at MCC (the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation), a consortium of 22 high-technology firms joined to conduct research in future computer technology.

Rob, his partner, and their livestock (a labrador and a guinea pig) live in Texas. He is an active member of Mensa, serves on the Business Council of the Human Rights Campaign, and raising his fourth guide dog puppy for
the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind. When away from the office, Rob enjoys working on projects around the house, travel, photography, and singing. He is a licensed real estate salesman in Texas.