Charlie now wears a Fedora

Matt Asay posted about upcoming CEO changes to be announced in a few weeks time. Well, it's been a few weeks time, and although not a new CEO, Red Hat has landed a seasoned open source executive - Charlie Martin.

I met Charlie when we both worked for MuleSource this past year, and have been good friends ever since. He was instrumental in creating the partnership and channels market, signing up some great partners like ISS - which I can't say enough good things about. One of the best partners you could ask for (talented engineers, willingness to help, experienced executives).

Charlie's role will be that of Western Regional Sales Manager and he will be working with existing and new ISV partners in the western US.

Luckily for us, Charlie decided not to go into the CIA after a few years with the US Foreign Service to join the software business - or else, who knows what cave in Afghanistan he'd be in right now directing in F-16's. It's great to see my old employer Red Hat recognizing talented and experienced open source professionals.

Now, Charlie, to get you ready and up to speed on the JBoss SOA Suite, please see the video below on how to sell SOA:

On another related note, Ferda Martin, formerly Inside Sales manager at MuleSource signs up with IONA, while Bjoern Heckel who worked on the Enterprise Mule engineering team now joins GoingOn.  Lots of movement in the thriving Open Source eco-system.