As an IBM Fellow I have had the opportunity to advance to executive leadership without being a people manager. There are many choices for career path, and everyone is different. I will walk through parts of my career as well as a large transformation project to demonstrate the value of the individual contributor at the executive level. This includes not only the value toward completion of high priority business transformation projects but the overall organizational health by growing the talent within the organization. I will share my experience from recently completed data center transformation project.