Misty Decker didn’t plan to build a career evangelizing mainframes. She wanted to be a research mathematician. But grad school wasn’t financially viable, so she pivoted, searching for an opportunity that would pay her tuition.
When IBM initially called her to interview in New York, she declined. She didn’t own a car to drive, and knowing nothing about upstate, her opinion of New York wasn’t favorable. Then IBM offered to fly her. “I only took the interview to get on an airplane,” she laughs. “I’d never flown on a plane before.”
That eye-opening trip changed everything. She joined IBM in Poughkeepsie and unexpectedly fell in love with the mainframe. That love turned into a 30-year career spanning technical development, release management, academic outreach, hardware development, and advocacy.
Early Days
Misty’s first job involved IBM’s OS development team, where she helped unify disaggregated system components following the expiration of an antitrust settlement. “We were finally allowed to merge the operating system components back into one,” she says. She helped write the installation instructions for what became OS/390, then later served as the release manager of the first release of z/OS.
Over the next three decades, she refined her interests and skills. She worked in customer satisfaction, led firmware teams, managed research funding through university alliances, and headed IBM Z’s Academic Initiative, which included the global “Master the Mainframe” competition. Along the way, she earned her Master’s Degree in Information Systems from Marist College, courtesy of IBM’s tuition assistance.
“I’ve had a lot of jobs,” Misty says. “They were all mainframe-related, but I bounced around. I tell people that working in this career is not a straight line. It’s more of a zigzag. Every turn adds another layer.”
From Doubter to Advocate
When she eventually left IBM for a role at Micro Focus, it wasn’t because she rejected the technology. Instead, she wanted to help customers move forward in whatever direction made the most sense for their business. Misty knows how to move companies on to and off of the mainframe.
She compares the two warring sides to a ‘Team King Kong’ and ‘Team Godzilla.’ Team King Kong is pro-cloud, proselytizing the mainframe as an outdated relic that should be abandoned. On the other side, Team Godzilla believes the mainframe is perfect and leaving it is absurd.
This black-and-white, all-or-nothing thinking is one reason Misty started the Open Mainframe Project Modernization Working Group. She struggled to have honest, nuanced conversations about the pros and cons of options.
At Kyndryl, where she works today, she has finally found a place that supports all platforms. “It’s the only place where I can advocate for what I think is best for each customer without organizational pressure to push one way or another.”
It’s about delivering value to the business, not about the platform.
The Intersection of Technology and Emotional IQ
Misty now leads Kyndryl US’s mainframe modernization consulting, a role that fascinates her in how it combines technology and humanity.
“I listen hard. I read the room. I once heard someone’s breathing change in a meeting and asked if they had a concern. They did. I just knew.”
In her first 18 months at Kyndryl, Misty built a new approach for clients that addresses technical complexity, psychological safety, change fatigue, and C-suite expectations. All of which are very human experiences when dealing with rapid technology innovations and change.
What matters is: are we solving the right problem for this business?
Misty’s experience means she knows how vital and scary modernization can be, especially for organizations that previously failed in a systems overhaul. “It’s more about trust than tech,” she states.
Mainframe Modernization is as Compelling as Climate Change
Misty frequently compares legacy mainframe transformation to the environmental crisis as a way to convey urgency and increase understanding.
“Mainframe modernization is the climate change of IT,” she says. “It’s huge and overwhelming. Change is expensive and risky. It’s very common to put it off. But eventually, it’s going to bite you.”
This issue is her passion.
Mainframe modernization is the climate change of IT.
Misty was once called ‘The Greta Thunberg of Mainframes.’ She can relate to the analogy. She doesn’t personally care if an organization is Team King Kong, Team Godzilla, or some hybrid of the two. What matters to her is solving the business problem in whatever way is best for that organization.
Advocacy On and Off the Clock
Misty’s mentorship work is deep, with a focus especially on women, people of color, and LGBTQ professionals. She makes time for a 30-minute call with anyone trying to get unstuck in their career. If she takes on a long-term mentee, it’s usually someone from a marginalized group.
But Misty isn’t a hobbyist mainframer with her own server in the back bedroom. Her spare time is filled with parenting and music. She is a mezzo-soprano in a chamber choir performing at Carnegie Hall for the third time. “It sounds fancier than it is,” she says modestly.
She shared a story about chaperoning a field trip. When the trip ended, her son, rolling his eyes in the way only teenagers can, lamented, “Mom, I was in the back of the bus, and I could hear you talking about mainframes the whole time.”
I love this technology, and modernizing is urgently needed.
Whether it’s a field trip or a plane, if someone asks Misty what she does, they will get the whole story. “I can’t not talk about it!” she says. “I love this technology, and I think modernizing is urgently needed.”
A Voice of Reason in a Polarized Field
For Misty, mainframes aren’t sacred cows. They’re tools. Whether they’re the right tool depends entirely on the organization. “We’ve made this a war,” she says. “It’s not a war. It’s about delivering value to the business. That’s it.”
She may not be Greta Thunberg, exactly. But she’s no less relentless–or right.
Connect with this top influential mainframer on LinkedIn, and take her up on that mentoring offer.
View the entire 2025 Influential Mainframers group here.
Penney Berryman, MPH (she/her), is the Content Editor for Planet Mainframe. She also writes health technology and online education marketing materials. Penney is based in Austin, Texas.
Connect with her on LinkedIn.