High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Thomas John Watson, Sr. (February 17, 1874 – June 19, 1956) was the chairman and CEO of International Business Machines (IBM), who oversaw that company`s growth into an international force from 1914 to 1956. Watson developed IBM`s distinctive management style and corporate culture, and turned the company into a highly-effective selling organization, based largely around punched card tabulating machines. A leading self-made industrialist, he was one of the richest men of his time and was called the world`s greatest salesman when he died in 1956.