Open source software player Red Hat named company veteran Paul Cormier as its new president and CEO, replacing Jim Whitehurst, as part of a leadership shake-up following a $34 billion acquisition by IBM.

In a statement, Red Hat said Cormier (pictured, left), who previously served as president of products and technologies, assumed the top job today (6 April), after Whitehurst became president of IBM.

Cormier joined Red Hat in 2001 and was credited with driving more than 25 acquisitions, helping the company create a “full modern IT stack based on open source innovation” to disrupt the IT industry.

Pushing his credentials further, the company said Cormier had championed a vision for open hybrid cloud, giving customers flexibility to deliver an app anywhere, on any infrastructure.

“The opportunity for Red Hat has never been bigger than it is today and I am honoured to lead the company to help our customers solve their challenges and to keep Red Hat at the forefront of innovation,” said Cormier.

IBM, which announced the deal for Red Hat in October 2018 and closed it in July 2019, handed the president title to Whitehurst, who will also serve as Red Hat chairman, replacing Arvind Krishna.

Krishna, meanwhile, assumes the CEO position of IBM as of today (6 April), after being appointed in January 2020 to succeed Ginni Rometty.