The blue-washing starts from the top down. Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated,
https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2022/10/12/red-hat-ibm-executive-leadership-changes.html
By: Lauren Ohnesorge – Senior Staff Writer, Triangle Business Journal
Oct 12, 2022
IBM subsidiary Red Hat is making key changes to its executive leadership – shifting current CFO Carolyn Nash into the Chief Operating Officer role as it gives its finance and operations organization a makeover.
As part of the larger organizational shift, Raleigh-based open source software firm Red Hat, which was bought by IBM (NYSE: IBM) in a $34 billion deal three years ago, also named IBM veteran Robert Leibrock as its new senior vice president and chief financial officer. And longtime Red Hatter Jim Palermo has been named the firm’s new vice president and chief information officer.
Nash, who took on the CFO role earlier this year after the retirement of Laurie Krebs, will continue to report to Matt Hicks, who was named president and CEO of Red Hat earlier this year. Leibrock and Palermo will report directly to Nash.
Nash, a five-year Red Hatter based in Boston, was vice president of global finance, transformations and operations before taking on the CFO role in April.
Leibrock is a longtime IBMer based in New York, most recently serving as assistant comptroller responsible for enterprise-wide financial management, including forecasts, measurements and IBM’s operational management system. According to the company, he played a key role in IBM’s buyout of Red Hat in 2019 and was responsible for driving much of its synergies.
Palermo joined Red Hat in 2010 and most recently served as its Raleigh-based vice president of Digital Solutions Delivery, responsible for developing tools to host internal workloads in the hybrid cloud and in Red Hat’s data centers.
The executives were not immediately available to talk about the move. The organizational shuffle comes shortly after IBM and Red Hat announced they would be combining their storage businesses.
A different C-suite
The latest shuffle comes amid a time of major executive turnover for Red Hat.
Of the five named Red Hat executives pre-IBM deal, none remain in their roles today – including former CEO James Whitehurst who shifted into a president role at IBM shortly after the deal, eventually leaving the firm completely.
Where are they now? What some of Red Hat's former execs are up to today
Arun Oberoi, former executive vice president of global sales and services at Red Hat, retired last year. He’s currently spending time on corporate boards, such as that of physics-based software platform Schrödinger, Inc. (Nasdaq: SDGR).
They all played key roles in IBM's buyout of Red Hat in 2019 - and then they all left Red Hat.
Former Red Hat CFO Eric Shander suddenly left the firm – he was dismissed without pay – in 2019. Paul Cormier, executive vice president and president of products and technologies at the time of the IBM deal, shifted into the CEO seat after Whitehurst’s departure. He left earlier this year, replaced by Matt Hicks, though he still holds a chairman role. Arun Oberoi, former executive vice president of global sales and services, left that role last year. Larry Stack is the current executive vice president of global sales and customer success.
Michael Cunnington, general counsel at the time of the deal, left in 2019. That role is currently held by Tom Savage.
Other C-suite changes include that of former Chief People Officer DeLisa Alexander, who left last year and was replaced by Jennifer Dudeck, and Tim Yeaton, former chief marketing officer replaced in 2021 by Leigh Day. Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen, the 18-year Red Hatter who was most recently senior vice president and general manager of Red Hat North America, left the company in July.
The C-suite shakeups have also impacted Red Hat Tower, as many key roles, including the CEO seat, have shifted to Boston over the past few years.
Today, just four members of Red Hat’s 11-person corporate leadership team are based at its Raleigh headquarters, including Dudeck; Day; Savage and Mike Ferris, senior vice president of corporate development and strategy.