Red Hat appoints Matt Hicks as new CEO

Hicks says he is ready to 'roll up his sleeves' in his new role

Matt Hicks has said he is "ready to roll up his sleeves" as Red Hat confirmed him as its new president and chief executive officer.

Hicks takes over from Paul Cormier, who will serve as chairman of the company, the open-source vendor said.

The IBM subsidiary says both men will report to Big Blue CEO and president Arvind Krishna, who said Hick's experience and knowledge makes him "the ideal leader".

Hicks joined Red Hat in 2006 as a developer on the IT team and worked his way up to executive vice president of products and technologies.

Krishna said: "Red Hat serves as the foundation of so many clients' technology strategies because of its open source and hybrid cloud capabilities.

"Matt's deep experience and technical knowledge of Red Hat's entire portfolio makes him the ideal leader as Red Hat continues to grow and to develop innovative, industry leading software."

Hicks added: "When I first joined Red Hat, I was passionate about open source and our mission, and I wanted to be a part of that. I am humbled and energised to be stepping into this role at this moment.

"There has never been a more exciting time to be in our industry and the opportunity in front of Red Hat is vast. I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and prove that open-source technology truly can unlock the world's potential."

Cormier, who was named president and CEO in 2020, has a 21-year tenure at Red Hat and during that time he has driven much of the company's open hybrid cloud strategy.

In his new role, he will serve as Red Hat's strategic touchstone and key advisor, with his focus being on scaling the company and accelerating customer adoption of open-source technology.

He will also work with Red Hat leadership on future M&A strategy.

Cormier said: "Matt is the exemplification of a true Red Hatter and is absolutely the right person to step into this role. His experience across different parts of our business has given him depth and breadth of knowledge about how we can best work together to scale and remain the open hybrid cloud leader.

"He understands our product strategy and the direction the industry is moving in a way that's second to none. As chairman, I'm excited to get to work with our customers, partners, and Matt in new ways. My focus moving forward will be on helping customers drive innovation forward with a hybrid cloud platform built on open source technology.

"Open-source technology has won the innovation debates and whatever the future looks like, it's going to be built on open source technology and Red Hat will be there."