Red Hat has named Paul Cormier, who previously served as the president of products and technologies at the company, as its new president and chief executive officer, the company announced in a press release today.
Cormier joined Red Hat in the year 2001 and is known for driving major strategy shifts as well as expanding the company’s line of products and services. He has facilitated over 25 acquisitions at Red Hat, according to the company, moving it well beyond its Linux roots and helped create a modern IT stack based on open-source innovations. He was also a big part of Red Hat’s structural combination with IBM which took place in 2018.
“The opportunity for Red Hat has never been bigger than it is today and I am honoured to lead the company to help our customers solve their challenges and to keep Red Hat at the forefront of innovation,” Cormier said in a press release.
Cormier succeeds Jim Whitehurst, who is now the president of IBM and chairman of Red Hat. Whitehurst succeeds Arvind Krishna, who has now assumed the role of the chief executive officer at IBM.
“After working with him closely for more than a decade, I can confidently say that Paul was the natural choice to lead Red Hat. Having been the driving force behind Red Hat’s product strategy for nearly two decades, he’s been intimately involved in setting the company’s direction and uniquely understands how to help customers and partners make the most out of their cloud strategy,” Whitehurst said in a prepared statement.