Jim Whitehurst, CEO and President of Red Hat, Inc.

Summary: Among other topics, Jim discusses the following issues with Metis Strategy:<br> <br> <br> * Open source and how it enables constituents to contribute what they need back into code to make significant improvements<br> * How a good deal of innovation in IT comes from users, in that they run into problems that vendors wouldn’t conceive of, and thus initiate the process to tackle these problems<br> * How Red Hat acts as a catalyst of communities, where the culture is such that the organization seeks to influence rather than manage<br> * The evolving role of the CIO, and how CIOs have more opportunities to see across the business, and that career paths in IT should be adjusted to make the boundary between IT and business more fluid<br> * How Red Hat seeks to engage and collaborate with leading edge companies that work on problems that will become common place in the future<br> <br> <br> <br> Jim Whitehurst’s Biography<br> <br> Jim is the Chief Executive Officer and President of Red Hat, Inc. the world’s first billion dollar open source software company.<br> Prior to his time at Red Hat, Jim served as the Chief Operating Officer of Delta Air Lines Inc. from July 2005 to August 2007, and he previously held the role of Senior Vice President and Chief Network and Planning Officer at Delta.<br> Prior to his tenure at Delta, Jim was Partner and Managing Director of Boston Consulting Group, and he held various leadership roles in their Chicago, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Atlanta offices.<br> Jim has been a Director of Red Hat, Inc. since January 1, 2008. He has been Director at DigitalGlobe, Inc. since August 2009.<br> Jim holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and Economics from Rice University. He also attended Erlangen Nuremberg University in Erlangen, Germany, and holds a general course degree from the London School of Economics and an MBA from Harvard Business School.<br>