Paul J. Cormier is a business executive and

chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

Red Hat Red Hat, Inc. (formerly Red Hat Software, Inc.) is an American software company that provides open source software products to enterprises and is a subsidiary of IBM. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North ...

. He previously was

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

(CEO) from April 2020 to July 2022.

Early life and education

Cormier was born in Fitchburg on November 4, 1959. His interest in

computers A computer is a machine that can be programmed to automatically carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ('' computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as ''programs'', ...

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 until ...

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 a postgraduate 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 prac ...

Rochester Institute of Technology The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private university, private research university in Henrietta, New York, a suburb of Rochester, New York, Rochester. It was founded in 1829. It is one of only two institute of technology, institut ...

. 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 Linux distribution developed by Red Hat. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server versions for x86-64, Power ISA, ARM64, and IBM Z and a desktop version for x86-64. Fedora Linux and ...

Becoming CEO, then Chairman

Cormier was appointed CEO of Red Hat on 6 April 2020, replacing Jim Whitehurst. He was replaced by

Matt Hicks Matt Hicks 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. He repla ...

on 12 July 2022 and became chairman of the company.

Retirement

Cormier retired on April 1, 2024, after 24 years with Red Hat.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American businesspeople American chairpersons of corporations American computer businesspeople American technology chief executives Businesspeople from Massachusetts Businesspeople in software Living people People from Fitchburg, Massachusetts Red Hat employees {{US-CEO-stub