How Red Hat’s New CEO Matt Hicks Is Driving Hybrid Cloud and Edge Innovation

Red Hat recently appointed Matt Hicks as its new President and Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Paul Cormier who will become Chairman of the board.

Hicks, previously President of Products and Technology, oversaw Red Hat’s product strategy and engineering, helping to expand the company’s OpenShift‑based hybrid cloud and edge computing initiatives.

He is a founding member of the OpenShift engineering team, contributing to the project since 2013, and is credited with driving the platform’s evolution into an industry‑leading enterprise Kubernetes solution (originally introduced in 2015 with version 3).

Red Hat emphasizes Hicks’s more than 25 years of Linux R&D experience combined with strong business acumen, describing him as a key figure in the industry.

In his inaugural message, Hicks expressed excitement about the opportunities ahead and pledged to demonstrate the power of open‑source technology.

Under his leadership, Red Hat’s hybrid cloud strategy has been broadened: OpenShift now enables customers to build and deploy applications on‑premises, in public clouds, or across multiple cloud environments.

The company also offers managed cloud services for cloud‑native applications, accelerates AI development, and introduces new security approaches across hybrid cloud landscapes.

This open hybrid‑cloud approach earned strong customer approval and contributed to IBM’s high‑value acquisition of Red Hat in 2019.

At Red Hat’s recent summit, Hicks outlined the next phase of edge computing, targeting telecom and automotive sectors, including a partnership with General Motors to bring the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating system to vehicles.

IBM Software Senior Vice President Tom Rosamilia described OpenShift as a cornerstone of IBM’s multi‑cloud strategy, noting its role in rebuilding Cloud Parks across AWS, Azure, IBM Cloud, and other environments.

Former CEO Paul Cormier, after two years as CEO, will transition to Chairman and serve as a core advisor, continuing to support Red Hat’s growth and open‑source adoption, reporting directly to IBM CEO Arvind Krishna.

Cormier joined Red Hat in 2001 as an R&D engineer, helping transform the company from a free‑download Linux provider to the subscription‑based Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) model that earned widespread acclaim for its support and services.

During his tenure, Hicks also oversaw Red Hat’s partnership with ABB, enabling the industrial automation company to run its process automation and industrial software on OpenShift, offering greater flexibility for future hardware deployments.

Hicks emphasized Red Hat’s commitment to integrating operations and IT technologies, simplifying the transition from automation to autonomous operations, and meeting current and future manufacturing needs with open‑source solutions.