Matthew Szulik, chairman, CEO and president of Raleigh-based software company Red Hat, discussed his perspectives on leadership during a lecture Wednesday, Jan. 12 in Whitley Auditorium.
Szulik’s lecture, titled “Leadership in the Technological Environment,” was the first of three scheduled for the Leadership Lecture Series during Winter Term.
Red Hat is a leader in the open-source movement-the concept of distributing computer software in a way which makes the source code freely available for others to view, amend and adapt.
Szulik recalled his early efforts in 1998 to raise money for the fledgling Red Hat and its novel concept of code sharing. “I got laughed out of more offices than I care to remember,” said Szulik.
He said he was driven by a core belief that software giant Microsoft was stifling creativity and shutting out a large portion of the world from technology. With open-source code sharing, Szulik believes creativity is enhanced and customers win.
“We see this as an opportunity to do what Henry Ford did at the turn of the century, and that’s make technology affordable for everybody,” Szulik said.
Szulik said business leaders must be true to their values and create a culture that encourages others to buy in to those values. He said many people thought he made a mistake by not selling out his share of Red Hat stock and walking away with a personal fortune.
“I couldn’t do that,” Szulik said, “because if your goal is to change the world and improve society, then money is secondary.” He challenged Elon students to examine their values and their commitment to them. “Are you willing to remain sacrosanct to the core values your parents taught you, or are you willing to cash out?”
A leader must also be on constant watch for talented employees, Szulik said.
“One of my responsibilities as a leader is to recruit. I am one of the luckiest guys because each day I go to work with some of the brightest young minds around. It is my responsibility to identify talent. A good leader is constantly vigilant for talent.”
Szulik, who was introduced by his daughter, Kaitlin, an Elon freshman, said he is excited to play a role in educating the next generation of leaders.
“I’ll be very anxious, as I age, to see what kinds of people pick up the baton of leadership.”
Since joining Red Hat in 1998, Szulik has led the company through successful public stock offerings in 1999 and 2000 and has helped Red Hat develop global partnerships with Oracle, IBM, Dell, Intel and HP to deliver open-source technology.
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