STAMFORD, Conn. - Pitney Bowes Inc., a global technology company that provides innovative products and solutions to power commerce, today announced that Linda Sanford has been elected a director of the corporation. On September 21 the Board expanded its size from 10 to 11 members and her appointment was effective that day to fill the vacancy.

Linda Sanford is a retired senior executive of IBM Corporation. She joined IBM in 1975 and was most recently Senior Vice President of Enterprise Transformation. In this role, Ms. Sanford was responsible for working across IBM to transform core business processes, create an IT infrastructure to support and integrate processes globally, and help create a Values-based culture that fosters innovation. Through her 39 year career at IBM she held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility including leading IBM’s Global Industries, the organization that manages relationships with IBM’s largest customers worldwide, and Senior Vice President & Group Executive, IBM Storage Systems Group.

Pitney Bowes President and CEO Marc Lautenbach noted, “We are pleased that Linda is bringing her wealth of experience and insight to our Board. We believe that her expertise in transforming business processes, cultures, innovation and managing client relationships, will prove to be very valuable as we focus on these same areas at this inflection point in our transformation.”

Linda Sanford’s accomplishments have resulted in numerous awards and recognition including being named a member of the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame and the National Academy of Engineering. She has been named one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Business by Fortune Magazine, one of the Top Ten Innovators in the Technology Industry by Information Week Magazine, and one of the Ten Most Influential Women in Technology by Working Woman Magazine. She is a graduate of St. John's University, earned an M.S. in Operations Research from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and was awarded an honorary doctorate in commercial science from St. John’s.

Linda Sanford’s term will expire at the 2016 annual meeting, when she is expected to stand for re-election.