IBM named Virginia Rometty, the head of sales, marketing and strategy, to take over as chief executive on January 1, making her the first woman to head the legendary US computer company.

Rometty, 54, who is also a senior vice president at IBM, will take over from current president and chief executive Samuel Palmisano, 60, on January 1, IBM said in a statement yesterday.

Palmisano, who was named IBM's chief executive in 2002, will stay on as chairman of the board of directors.

IBM said Rometty had also been elected to IBM's board of directors, effective immediately.

Rometty will be the ninth chief executive in the 100-year-old history of the company known as "Big Blue" and the first woman to hold the top post.

She joins a select group of women heading US technology companies. They include Ursula Burns at Xerox and Meg Whitman, the former chief executive of eBay who was recently named to the same position at Hewlett-Packard.