Prior to joining Red Hat Cunningham served as Associate General Counsel of IBM as well as Partner and Associate General Counsel of PricewaterhouseCoopers. At IBM Cunningham was head legal advisor to the Business Consulting Services division for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and a member of the global senior management team for Business Consulting Services. At PricewaterhouseCoopers Cunningham's most recent responsibilities included global responsibility for the delivery of transactional legal services to PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting as well as the lead lawyer in EMEA for this business.
"Red Hat continues to attract exceptional leadership talent to lead the scaling of our company," said Matthew Szulik, Red Hat Chairman and CEO. "Michael's accomplishment and leadership in the Global 100 will be invaluable to Red Hat in meeting the complexities of a global marketplace."
"Red Hat has demonstrated tremendous thought leadership in the area of intellectual property and has succeeded in building a highly respected organization," said Michael Cunningham. "I look forward to joining the global management team and helping to guide Red Hat's future growth."
Mark Webbink, Red Hat General Counsel since 2000, is moving to the role of Deputy General Counsel for intellectual property and public policy. In his new role, Webbink will guide Red Hat's legal strategy with respect to intellectual property and will continue to be an active voice of the open source community with respect to intellectual property issues. In the last two years Webbink has testified before hearings of the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice on antitrust and patents, testified before Congress on patent reform, and given numerous talks on open source licensing.
Michael Cunningham's position with Red Hat will be effective June 1, 2004.
About Red Hat, Inc.
Red Hat, the world's leading open source and Linux provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with satellite offices spanning the globe. Red Hat is leading Linux and open source solutions into the mainstream by making high quality, low cost technology accessible. Red Hat provides operating system software along with middleware, applications and management solutions. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide and through top-tier partnerships. Red Hat's open source strategy offers customers a long term plan for building infrastructures that are based on and leverage open source technologies with focus on security and ease of management. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com
Forward-Looking Statements
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- About Red Hat
Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to reliable and high-performing cloud, Linux, middleware, storage and virtualization technologies. Red Hat also offers award-winning support, training, and consulting services. As the connective hub in a global network of enterprises, partners, and open source communities, Red Hat helps create relevant, innovative technologies that liberate resources for growth and prepare customers for the future of IT. Learn more at http://www.redhat.com.
- Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: risks related to delays or reductions in information technology spending; the effects of industry consolidation; the ability of the Company to compete effectively; the integration of acquisitions and the ability to market successfully acquired technologies and products; uncertainty and adverse results in litigation and related settlements; the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and the potential for infringement or breach of license claims of or relating to third party intellectual property; the ability to deliver and stimulate demand for new products and technological innovations on a timely basis; risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities; ineffective management of, and control over, the Company’s growth and international operations; fluctuations in exchange rates; and changes in and a dependence on key personnel, as well as other factors contained in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (copies of which may be accessed through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at http://www.sec.gov), including those found therein under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations". In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic and political conditions, governmental and public policy changes and the impact of natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company’s views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.
