Matthew Szulik: Open source's windfall

Matthew Szulik stills remembers when, fresh out of college in 1978, he attended a meeting of the newly formed Massachusetts High Technology Council and watched Digital Equipment founder Ken Olsen bring out one of the company's PDP minicomputers and put it on a folding table.

"There was so much innovation occurring in the greater Boston area, and I was a 21-year-old kid, wide-eyed and impressionable. . . . [The experience] continues to have an impression on me," says Szulik, CEO of market-leading Linux distributor Red Hat.

//VitalStats     Position: Chairman, CEO and president, Red Hat Age:49 Years at company: 7  Years in industry: 27  Major career accomplishment: Built Red Hat into a profitable open source company and the leading Linux distributor.     ILLUSTRATOR: ANTONY HARE

"I got to see men who not only had compelling visions to create great, sustainable companies at young ages, but also who understood the responsibility of doing positive things for the community. It wasn't about exclusively making money and stopping," he says. "It was about innovating and creating technology that would improve the lives of others."

Such missionary zeal for the greater good keeps Szulik motivated personally and professionally. He drives himself hard in the office, but makes it a priority to leave time for family. A husband and father of three, Szulik forgoes the golf course "because I don't want to spend four and a half hours away from my children."

Instead, he spends hours on the road on weekends driving his son to Amateur Athletic Union baseball games. "And then when he goes to sleep at 11 p.m., I try to find a Starbucks that's open to get a wireless connection to check my e-mail," Szulik says.

Szulik's commitment to his family is amazing, says Steve Albrecht, associate dean of the Marriott School of Management and Arthur Andersen professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and a Red Hat board member. "For a CEO that is so driven and so passionate, to see how he cares for his family and how important his family is to him, is really inspirational," says Albrecht, who met Szulik in 2001 during one of Szulik's many speaking engagements at colleges and universities worldwide.

Initially, Albrecht was struck by Szulik's professional enthusiasm. When asked to join the Red Hat board, Albrecht had no hesitation despite the company's somewhat tricky business model. "Matthew comes across as extremely knowledgeable and enthused about what he's doing," Albrecht says. "It's very difficult to interact with him and not get excited."

Red Hat employees say Szulik's unabashed energy is one thing that makes the company so strong. A hands-on guy, Szulik makes himself very accessible to employees and spends a lot of time meeting with engineers, help-desk staff and people in sales and marketing, a media relations representative says. He even goes so far as to share his favorite books from his personal library.