Abstract: As a vehicle for economic and social change, the power of open source is immeasurable. It's changing how people learn, how developers create, how companies do business. In this talk, Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik will share his vision of how the open source model is allowing greater affordability and access to technology, from the world's largest organizations to its poorest societies.

Short Bio: Matthew Szulik has been leading early-stage technology companies, such as Interleaf, MapInfo, and Red Hat, into global, publicly traded firms for more than 20 years. In 1998, Szulik and Red Hat founder Bob Young developed a shared vision that the collaborative approach of open source and a great brand could redistribute the economics of the technology industry from vendor to customer.

Following successful public offerings in 1999 and 2000, Red Hat has developed global partnerships with Oracle, IBM, Dell, Intel, and HP to deliver technology based on open source technology. Today, Red Hat is the leading provider of Linux and open source technology to the enterprise and is positioned to be the defining technology company of the 21st century.

Szulik is passionate about improving the educational opportunities for students worldwide through open source, and he is a spokesperson to industry, government, and education leaders on open source computing.

Szulik is the Chairman of the Science and Technology Board for State of North Carolina's Economic Development Board. He is past Chairman and an Executive Director of the North Carolina Electronics and Information Technologies Association.

Szulik was recently recognized by CIO Magazine with its 20/20 Vision Award and was named one of the 50 Most Powerful People in Networking by Network World Magazine.