Szulik’s Departure from Red Hat

It’s old news now that longtime Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik is resigning the CEO position and has appointed the former COO from Delta Airlines Jim Whitehurst. However, I’ve long suspected that Szulik wanted out. I remember at one of the Red Hat conferences before heading out for dinner meetings with customers he told me he was getting “too old for this sort of thing.” Still his impact on the company has been profound.

Szulik has created the largest and most successful open source company and he deserves full credit for taking the company from a low-end retail box-pusher into a significant Enterprise player –well ahead of competitors. And Szulik stood up to the pressure from Microsoft, Oracle, Novell and others. He fought tough odds and helped shape and transform Red Hat along the way.

By announcing the change along with strong Q3 earnings, Szulik has timed things to ensure ongoing strong operations. The JBoss integration appears to be complete and working, despite some grumbling from those who left. And revenues and subscription growth are in good shape.

While Whitehurst has a strong operational track record, at first blush, his appointment seems a bit odd, considering that he’s coming from outside the tech industry. However, earlier on Whitehurst was with Boston Consulting Group and he’s generally well-regarded as a tech-savvy operations guy.

Szulik will remain as Chairman of Red Hat, but in most companies this role is largely removed from day-to-day operations. Szulik was a hard charger though and I’m sure his absence will be felt, not only at Red Hat but in the industry. He was always a class act.

Matthew, you will be missed.

Good blog postings by Matthew Szulik and Michael Tiemann.