Paul J. Cormier is a business executive who serves as chairman of Red Hat. He previously served as

Chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

(CEO) from April 6, 2020 until July 12, 2022.

Early life and education

Cormier was born in Fitchburg on November 4, 1959. His interest in computers started during his high school years when his father got him a summer job in

Digital Equipment Corporation Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president un ...

where he kept working until his college years. He attended the

Fitchburg State University Fitchburg State University (Fitchburg State) is a public university in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. It has 3,421 undergraduate and 1,238 graduate/continuing education students, for a total student body enrollment of 4,659. The university offers und ...

and did his

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private research university in the town of Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional ...

. After graduation, he participated in Graduate Engineering Education Program of IBM and Digital.

Career at Red Hat

Cormier joined Red Hat in May 2001 as Executive Vice President of Engineering and initiated the commercialization of open source products by promoting

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...

services. He also helped the creation of

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a commercial open-source Linux distribution developed by Red Hat for the commercial market. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server versions for x86-64, Power ISA, ARM64, and IBM Z and a desktop ...

Becoming CEO

Cormier was appointed CEO of Red Hat on 6 April 2020 by replacing

Jim Whitehurst James Moon Whitehurst is an American business executive. He was the President at IBM and chair of the board at Red Hat, and previously Chief Executive Officer at Red Hat and Chief Operating Officer at Delta Air Lines. Prior to working at Delt ...

. He then was replaced by

Matt Hicks Matt Hicks (born 1961) is a sports broadcaster who calls Texas Rangers games alongside Eric Nadel on the radio. Broadcasting career In the middle of the 2012 season, Hicks joined the Rangers after spending 10 years with the Corpus Christi Hooks. ...

on 12 July 2022 and became chairman of the company.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Red Hat employees American chief executives {{US-CEO-stub