Fact Check: Was Tillis a partner at IBM?
In recent campaign ads, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Thom Tillis has said he was a partner at IBM. Several readers have submitted questions asking whether Tillis really could have held this title at the technology giant or if he's inflating his credentials.
Posted — Updated
"I came up in the real world," Tillis says in the spot. "I've been a paper boy, a short order cook, a warehouse clerk and eventually a partner at IBM."
It's this last job title that brought up questions.
"I understand from some IBMers that there are no 'partners' in the company. What gives?" wrote Don Boyce of Raleigh.
For many, the term "partner" conjures images of a law partner who has an ownership stake and a say in the direction of the company. Others who work for IBM and wrote to WRAL News said they weren't aware of the technology giant having an analogous position.
"It feels like Mr. Tillis is exaggerating his experience," wrote one of those IBMers, asking that we fact-check this point in Tillis' resume.
However, Tillis is making a different, and more accurate, claim.
"Thom worked hard in the private sector and became a partner at PwC, a title he retained with IBM Global Business Services during their acquisition in 2002," said Daniel Keylin, a spokesman for the Tillis campaign.
The number of PwC partners who made the transition has been reported differently in different outlets, ranging from the 1,000 suggested by the Wall Street Journal to 500 in some bio pieces on Tillis.
"There were at least several hundred PwC partners who made the transition to IBM," Keylin said.
Tillis stepped down from his position in late 2009 after Republicans won a majority in the state House and he was poised to become House speaker in January 2010.
IBM is not the sort of company organized in the same way that an accounting firm might be, so the title "partner" is somewhat at odds with what many people recognize as the company's culture.
"You would have expected it (Tillis' title) to be more like a vice president or a director," said Hillary Sale, a law professor and corporate governance expert with Washington University in St. Louis.
Sale said that it's true that the traditional definition of "partner" is someone who has an equity stake in a company, which doesn't seem to be the case with Tillis. However, he may have carried a title that had more cache than meaning into the new company.
"Even if it's technically true, the question I would have is if it is really that important to call yourself a partner," Sale said.
It's understandable that viewers are confused about the title. If Tillis had switched to a more generic "executive at IBM" or stuck to partner at PwC, most people wouldn't have batted an eye.
"From a campaign perspective, if I were his staff person, I would say this is raising a lot of questions for nothing," she said.
