Red Hat Names Calderoni, Ex-Cisco Exec, to CFO, Operations EVP Post

Open source software provider Red Hat (RHAT) named 30-year industry veteran Frank Calderoni as its new chief financial officer (CFO) and operations executive vice president to succeed Charlie Peters, who held the CFO post since 2004 and is retiring as of July 31.

Calderoni, whose background includes a seven-year stint as CFO and executive advisor at networking giant Cisco (CSCO), comes aboard as of June 22 and will officially take Peters’ seat on July 13. He is tasked with heading Rat Hat’s global finance organization and leading its IT and operations teams. Calderoni will report to Jim Whitehurst, Red Hat president and chief executive officer.

Whitehurst said Calderoni’s experience and operational strengths will help Red Hat fulfill its next growth phase, a fivefold expansion to a $10 billion company.

“We are thrilled to have Frank join Red Hat and help lead the next phase of our growth as we look to go from revenues approaching $2 billion to $10 billion and beyond,” he said. “He is a proven CFO and technology industry leader, and we are fortunate to have such an experienced and operationally strong executive join our team.”

While at Cisco, Calderoni helped preside over Cisco’s growth from $22 billion in revenue to some $47 billion and was credited with managing the vendor’s financial strategy and operations.

“I’m very excited to be joining Red Hat, an exceptional company that is truly transforming enterprise technology,” said Calderoni. “With the pivotal role Red Hat leads in open source solutions from the datacenter to the cloud, it is an outstanding opportunity to be a part of the driving force behind much of that innovation. I am enthusiastic about joining the team at Red Hat to help implement the next era of growth, innovation, and customer success.”

Whitehurst credited Peters with shepherding Red Hat’s 44 straight quarters of revenue growth in which the company grew from $196 million in sales in 2005 to about $2 billion in fiscal 2015, calling him “instrumental in Red Hat’s success for more than a decade.”