Zack Clayton, founder and chief executive officer of Raleigh-based social media and digital marketing firm Three Ships Media, has turned to the ranks of Red Hat for a new president of the company.

She’s Emma Battle, who most recently was senior director of online marketing at Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), the world’s top Linux software developer and services provider.

Battle will be formally announced as Three Ship’s new president on Wednesday.

“Emma shares our passion for helping businesses grow through digital marketing, particularly local, social, and mobile-based marketing,” Clayton says in explaining the hiring of Battle. “This is what gets us up in the morning, and Emma’s leadership and involvement is a major win for our clients and team.”

Battle also worked at Art.com and Sarah Lee Branded Apparel earlier in her career. She also ran her own business, Iysis Business Services, and earned at MBA at Harvard. Battle also earned undergraduate degrees in economics and Spanish at Duke.

“Changes in social media, local marketing, and mobile trends mean companies must leverage digital marketing differently,” Battle says. “There is a huge need for a trusted partner to help companies execute on digital marketing, and Three Ships Media is best positioned to fill that need. And, by the way, it doesn’t hurt in the recruitment effort that Three Ships Media is offering a free house cleaning services benefit to all its ‘shipmates’!”

Three-year-old Three Ships, which is privately held, is profitable and grew its revenues in 2012, Clayton says. 

Battle will oversee Three Ships media’s services business.