From tech enthusiast to CEO: Matt Hicks’ leadership journey

Red Hat president and CEO Matt Hicks’ fascination with technology began early.

He vividly recalls the arrival of the IBM 8086 computer when he was just six years old. “I was lucky enough to be going to school when Linux was coming into play,” he said. Witnessing the shift from Sun and Spark systems to Intel and Linux and working hands-on with those tools shaped the foundation of his career.

His first job was consulting during the turbulent years of the dot-com bust. He admitted it was a terrible economic time, and he had to learn early on how to sell his skills and value so he could stay employed.

One of the things that kept him anchored was his love for Linux. “The accessibility to knowledge, the ability to understand and learn without barriers, that was incredibly formative for me in my early career,” he said.

This early exposure to open systems and problem-solving pulled Hicks deeper into the world of software. Eventually, it led him to Red Hat. “I wanted to go to the source of Linux,” he said.

I’ve had bad days, plenty of them, but I consider myself lucky to be contributing to something bigger. Matt Hicks

At Red Hat, Hicks wore many hats supporting nearly every function in the company. “I usually tell people, I don’t think I’d be successful as CEO if I hadn’t spent five hard years learning how customer service, legal, operations and engineering functioned. I even went on the road with sales,” he recalled.

His transition into engineering came at a pivotal moment: the beginning of what would later become OpenShift. “Sometimes, I think you just have to be in the right place at the right time,” he said. His career grew alongside the platform’s success. Eventually, he moved from development back into management, eventually leading all of engineering, then the business units, and ultimately becoming CEO.

“But at my core,” he said, “I’m still a technologist. I’m still an engineer. I’m really passionate about that.”

What drives him now, as a leader, is keeping that same sense of curiosity and inspiration alive in others. “If we lose sight of what makes people passionate to show up for work, if we lose that spark, we can’t grow or scale. I want to help people find that spark and turn it into real enterprise value.”

He’s also driven by a deep belief in the mission of open source. “I love the challenge,” he said. He believes they are doing something that can outlast any company.

“I’ve had bad days, plenty of them, but I consider myself lucky to be contributing to something bigger.”

People-centric leadership

As a leader, Hicks looks up to those who keep people at the centre of everything they do.

As much as he loved technology, he learned that it must work for people, or it can have terrible outcomes. If technology excludes too many people, its reach and impact become limited.

He admires servant leaders who make tough decisions, not for control, but because they believe it’s the best path for the people they serve.

These role models aren’t limited to boardrooms. “You see them in every walk of life, from kids volunteer coaches in sports to business leaders, but it’s that same attribute that they’re willing to sacrifice. They’re there for somebody else, and even if it’s not what people would love, they will try to get the best outcome for people,” he said.

Preparing for profound change

Hicks knows that the next big shift, artificial intelligence, won’t be easy for everyone and he considers it as one of his biggest challenges as a leader. “AI is going to change all the fundamentals of work,” he said. “And I’ve been a manager long enough to know that people don’t love change.”

Still, he believes avoiding it isn’t an option. “If you sit on the sidelines, the pace of AI will leave you behind. But if you engage, if you help shape it, you can be a thousand times more impactful than you ever imagined.”

In his keynote speech at the Red Hat Summit in Boston on May 20, he encouraged attendees not to fear AI, but to shape it. “Don’t just stand by and watch it happen. Don’t fight it. Try to make it better,” he said.

He admits not everyone will be convinced. “I think the outcome will really be incredible if you get everybody’s creativity pulling in that direction. But I’m not sure. I think a lot of people don’t like the level of change,” he said.

Hicks leads by example, even when it’s uncomfortable. “I love software engineering. I genuinely love writing code. It’s like puzzles for me. I can do that work for any period of time. And yet, if I use AI models today, they are better programmers than I probably ever have been. That’s not a great feeling that [something I spent 30 years in] is not needed in that form anymore. But I’ve had to shift my own mindset to… use AI to orchestrate it to create better software outcomes than I ever could have created myself on,” he said.

“But if I refuse to embrace that, I will never convince anyone else to. It is that balance. I try to model, but I also don’t want people to wait forever because I know that with big changes, the default is that people will wait them out.

Mindsets that matter

When asked what mindset is most crucial in today’s tech landscape, Hicks didn’t hesitate: focus.

“There’s a lot of that in the world right now where in markets and challenges and societal, and what we’re going to do. And yet, reminding people to say we have this incredible mission on open-source software and a profound impact on that mission and we have very little impact on missions outside of that,” he explained.

As a leader, he warns against being pulled into distractions that drain energy but don’t affect meaningful outcomes. “Put 100 per cent of yourself into what you can shape. That’s what’s carried us through the turbulence of recent years.”

I always view leadership more as a responsibility than power or control. Matt Hicks

He also encourages risk-taking, especially for leaders. “The thing that will improve people most is taking that risk,” he said. “It’s a personal decision. It won’t always make sense. But leadership requires it.”

For Hicks, leadership isn’t about control or power. “I always view leadership more as a responsibility than power or control. And I think if you have that mindset, it doesn’t always feel good as a leader. It’s like you’re responsible for the teams you lead, and you need to do your best to get a great outcome, above your day-to-day outcome on it.  Seldom do I think it’s a fun role, but you can still be really passionate about it. You can be really proud of the outcomes,” he said.