RALEIGH – Arun Oberoi, executive vice president for sales at Red Hat, is retiring and will be replaced by Larry Stack, who currently leads commercial sales for North America.

Red Hat, now part of IBM, announced the changes Wednesday

Oberoi is leaving after nine years with the Hatters. He will work with Stack in coming months “to ensure a smooth transition,” Red Hat said in the announcement.

Larry Stack (Red Hat photo)

Noted Red Hat CEO 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.”

Stack is relatively new to Red Hat, having joined the company in 2018. Previous work experience included positions at DXC Technology, Accenture, HP and Fujitsu. A succesor for his current position will be named later, according to the company.

Red Hat noted that sales reached $1 billion then “more than tripled” again during Arun’s tenure.

Arun certainly benefited from IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat in 2019.

“Securities filings show Oberoi was one of the execs who benefited most from the IBM deal. In July of 2019, for example, he snagged $26.8 million in a stock sale connected with the deal,” The Triangle Business Journal reported. “While many executives reported stock sales at the time, his was the third highest after then-CEO Jim Whitehurst’s $50.4 million and current CEO Paul Cormier’s $39 million.”

Arun “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,” Red Hat added.

In the announcement, Oberoi said he was “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.”