Red Hat announced a new CEO last month when it promoted 16-year veteran Matt Hicks, who had been at the job for several weeks. His predecessor, Paul Cormier, stepped down to transition to the role of president.
It’s never easy to make a transition like this, but Hicks has Cormier, his longtime mentor, to lean on as he makes it. Red Hat rein. In his new role, Hicks must walk the line between reassuring clients and employees that there will be stability within the company’s leadership while moving forward and putting his own stamp on things.
For the most part, Hicks said he would continue same path as Cormier. IBM has allowed Red hat for independence most since bought it for 34 billion dollars in 2018. IBM sells Red Hat services to leverage its selling power, but Red Hat remains independent of many partners outside of IBM.
When Cormier told me about his relationship with IBM CEO Arvind Krishna in a May interview: “The way Arvind characterizes Red Hat is that IBM will stick with Red Hat, but it can’t work the other way around. So that means IBM has completely standardized on Red Hat as [company’s] hybrid platform,” said Cormier.
Under Cormier, Red Hat helped IBM return to growth after a long stagnation. Big Blue’s revenue up 9% in its most recent earnings report last month. Red Hat grew 12% and contributed greatly to IBM’s growth strategy
Hicks will continue to maintain that while carrying Red Hat wherever it will go next. I recently spoke with him about his transition to a new role and what it means for all stakeholders, from customers and employees to parent company IBM.
