CEO Rometty succeeds Palmisano on IBM's board

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 25 (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp Chief Executive Virginia Rometty will take over from Sam Palmisano as chairman of the board in October, adding the title after less than a year as CEO.

The 55-year-old Rometty becomes president, chief executive and chairman of the board of a venerable company still lauded on Wall Street for consistently delivering on promises to investors.

Palmisano, who since 2002 has helmed Big Blue and speeded its transformation from a low-margin maker of personal computers and printers into a services and software company, becomes Senior Advisor until he retires at the end of 2012.