MATTHEW J. SZULIK
Chairman, Chief Executive Officer & President, Red Hat

"I really believe in what Tim Berners-Lee and the other great visionaries had in mind regarding the Internet in that it was supposed to be the great equalizer. It doesn’t know race; it doesn’t know creed; all it knows is a good idea.”
Matthew J. Szulik , Oral History

Matthew Szulik has been helping to transform early-stage technology companies into global, publicly traded firms for more than 20 years. In 1998, Szulik developed a vision that the collaborative approach of open source, coupled with a strong brand, could redistribute the economics of the technology industry from vendor to customer.

Following successful public offerings in 1999 and 2000, Szulik has led Red Hat in developing global partnerships with industry giants such as Oracle, IBM, Dell, Intel and HP to deliver
technology based on open source technology. Today, Red Hat
is the leading enterprise provider of Linux and open source technology – positioning it to be one of the defining technology
companies of the 21st century.

As a spokesperson to industry, government and education leaders on open source computing, Szulik is passionate about improving educational opportunities for students worldwide through open source technology. He is the Chairman of the Science and Technology Board for the State of North Carolina’s Economic Development Board. He is also an Executive Director, and former Chairman, of the North Carolina Electronics and Information Technologies Association. Szulik was recently recognized by CIO Magazine with its “20/20 Vision Award.”

Members of the Morgan Stanley Leadership Award nominating committee

John Buckett,
Vice President Corporate Development,
Scientific Atlanta, Inc.

Douglas W. McCormick,
Chairman & CEO
iVillage.com

Stratton Sclavos,
CEO
VeriSign Inc.

Jon Shirley,
Board Director,
Microsoft