Transitioning Red Hat’s global sales and services leadership

As we start the new year, we wanted to share a leadership update within our sales and services organization. Later this year, Arun Oberoi, executive vice president of Global Sales and Services, has decided to retire after nine years with Red Hat. Larry Stack, most recently senior vice president of commercial sales for Red Hat in North America, will transition into the global sales and services leadership role beginning in April. Until his retirement in Q3, Arun will work with Larry to ensure a smooth transition.

When Arun joined Red Hat in May 2012 to lead sales and services globally (spanning commercial, public sector, and channel sales, Red Hat’s strategic alliances; professional services; and consulting and training services), Red Hat had just reached an industry milestone as the first open source software company to achieve more than $1 billion in annual revenue. By the time IBM’s landmark acquisition of Red Hat closed, Red Hat’s revenue had more than tripled.

During Arun’s nine years at Red Hat, he transformed the company’s go-to-market approach as its open hybrid cloud portfolio continued to expand, organically and through strategic acquisitions and new alliances. Arun played a critical leadership role in building a high-performing team and evolving the global sales and services model to respond to customers’ needs by market segment and in targeted industries. This includes deeper cross-portfolio technical specialization and support tailored to the unique use cases of each customer. A key element of this go-to market strategy has been developing and catalyzing the value multiplier of Red Hat’s industry-leading ecosystem of partners. Under Arun’s leadership, Red Hat has launched several initiatives and new services, notably Red Hat Open Innovation Labs and the Red Hat Global Transformation Office, to not only help customers adopt the open source technologies that are enabling them to create modern apps and flexible hybrid cloud infrastructure, but also transform their organizational cultures to embrace more collaborative and agile ways of working. 

Larry joined Red Hat in 2018, bringing broad experience in leadership positions in the tech industry, including at DXC Technology, Accenture, HP and Fujitsu. Larry started at Red Hat as the first leader for global accounts and targeted industries, helping to expand the value Red Hat delivers to these large customers. In his most recent role, Larry has consistently grown Red Hat’s commercial presence in North America at impressive rates quarter over quarter. At DXC Technology, he led the company’s global salesforce as chief revenue and sales officer following the merger between CSC and the enterprise services division of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. During his time at Accenture, he led a transformation that increased the company’s overall win rate, exceeded sales targets, surpassed contract margin targets and led Accenture business groups in several core sales metrics. Larry has served in the U.S. Air Force and the White House Situation Room, as well as working for the United Nations in Angola, and as a negotiator in Bosnia. 

Larry’s successor as head of commercial sales in North America will be named at a later date.

Arun and Larry, along with Paul Cormier, Red Hat’s president and CEO, added these statements on today’s announcement:

Arun Oberoi: 

“I am proud to have been part of the Red Hat team on our journey to support customer digital transformation strategies through building open hybrid cloud infrastructure. Working with our highly-talented and passionate team has been a highlight for me, as has bringing the open source principles of collaboration, mutual respect, and meritocracy to our work, and creating long-lasting customer value. As good as our past has been, Larry, along with our team, will help lead us to new heights.”

Larry Stack:

“I am extremely honored to have the opportunity of working with this world class team in this new role. What has been done by Red Hat over the last several years has been extraordinary and I truly am excited for the adventure ahead.”

Paul Cormier: 

“I have great appreciation for everything Arun has done to both enable Red Hat’s success over the last nine years and also as a true partner to our customers, showing incredible dedication to them and delivering solutions and capabilities that are transforming their businesses. Larry’s strong vision, customer focus and deep expertise will be great assets to Red Hat and I believe he will do an amazing job helping to take Red Hat to the next level.”