Matthew Szulik, Chairman, President and CEO, Red Hat - Top 25 Executives
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Red Hat Chairman, President and CEO Matthew Szulik is someone who connects the dots. "He's always looking three steps beyond me," says Steve Albrecht, associate dean for management at Brigham Young University, and a Red Hat board member for four years.
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While Red Hat's most obvious 2006 milestone was the acquisition of open-source
provider JBoss, this year also marked a turning point in the $280 million company's channel strategy with the appointment of former IBM and Lenovo executive Mark Enzweiler as vice president of North American channel sales.
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As is apt for an open-source champion, the 49-year-old Szulik spends much of his time listening to customers, employees—and his three kids. It's no accident that Red Hat's headquarters in Raleigh, N.C., is on a college campus, although you may also find him wandering about on Second Life, the 3-D virtual community. Students have been known to queue up at 5 a.m. the day of Szulik's speeches to claim a seat. It's a mutual admiration society. "If you want to know what the future will look like, listen to the music of a young adult generation and you will hear what their issues are," Szulik says.
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Paul Cormier, Red Hat's executive vice president of engineering who was recruited by Szulik six years ago when the company was planning its first enterprise-class software, says his boss is a tough, patient manager who views innovation as a continuous cycle and urges engineers not to get too caught up in individual features: "He always says it's not just about the bits."