Red Hat Builds Channel Strategy in Japan.

Masatsugu Koketsu, former Sun executive, to Expand Structure to Answer Demand For Red Hat solutions in Japan

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced the appointment of Masatsugu Koketsu in the role of Marketing and Channel Director in Japan. Koketsu will report to Yuji Fujita, President of Red Hat, Japan. Koketsu will be based at Red Hat's Japanese office in Tokyo.

Koketsu was formerly Partner of Infrastructure Consulting for Accenture, Japan, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Koketsu was responsible for technology consultation of IT infrastructure such as security, network and data center rationalization. Prior to his work with Accenture, Koketsu worked for Sun Microsystems, Japan, in marketing, sales and engineering capacities. With Sun, Koketsu substantially contributed to the business and technology growth of the company's products, solutions and technology, including the Solaris operating system. Koketsu also gained experience with NEC, Japan, acting as a project leader in the development of its UNIX operating system, gaining network and kernel technology experience.

"Koketsu will be a huge asset to our reach in the Asia Pacific region," said Alex Pinchev, Executive Vice President of Global Sales at Red Hat. "The demand for Red Hat's expertise in open source has been seen in Japan for some time. With his strong previous experience in varied roles throughout the industry, Koketsu understands the whole solution story and will be a strong addition to the Red Hat team."

"I am excited to bring my experience to Red Hat and contribute to the Company's development in Asia Pacific," said Koketsu. "This region offers many great opportunities for Red Hat to grow in mission critical areas, such as the financial services market. I look forward to continuing the expansion of open source in Japan."

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About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world's leading open source solutions provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with satellite offices spanning the globe. CIOs rank Red Hat the most valuable software vendor three years running in the CIO Insight Magazine Vendor Value study. Red Hat is leading Linux and open source solutions into the mainstream by making high-quality, low-cost technology accessible. Red Hat provides an operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, along with applications, management, and middleware solutions, including JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite. Red Hat is accelerating the shift to service-oriented architectures and enabling the next generation of web-enabled applications running on a low-cost, secure open source platform. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide and through top-tier partnerships. Red Hat's open source strategy offers customers a long term plan for building infrastructures that are based on and leverage open source technologies with a focus on security and ease of management. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com

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