Ria Pinto

Ria Pinto is the Country General Manager and VP Technology of IBM South Africa.

Ria is a business leader with 20+ years of experience in managing high performance sales teams for information technology products, services and solutions and currently leads the IBM business in South Africa. Ria is passionate about solving complex business problems, creating environments of deep inclusion and building cultures that embrace lifelong learning and reinvention, including developing the new skills the world needs.

As General Manager for IBM South Africa she is responsible for driving change and leading some of IBM’s strategic business initiatives focused on helping clients unlock value from their strategic initiatives where they are leveraging technology to accelerate their digital transformation to drive business growth.

Ria joined IBM in 1997 in the Global Technology Services business as a Business Development Executive. She held various leadership roles before moving to IBM UK on assignment. Upon her return she took on various leadership roles across the services and sales organizations.

In 2017 after successfully leading the Financial Services segment of the business, Ria took over the leadership of the Global Markets organization covering all Sectors in South and Central Africa region.

In 2021 with the global restructure of the Go to Market organization Ria took on the MEA Red Hat Synergy role working closing with Red Hat team to drive collaboration across all the territories in MEA.

In 2022, Ria was appointed Country General Manager and Technology leader for IBM in South Africa in line with the reorganization of the IBM company to better serve its clients in this market.

Over the course of her career Ria has completed various management and leadership development programs. She is passionate about developing people and assisting them achieve their full potential.