Eric Shander enjoyed working at IBM where he was following in his father’s footsteps. But having lived in Raleigh since 1998, he was ready to become a Hatter after reading a book by Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst. In the second part of our Q&A, Shander talks about his feelings for both companies, as well as Lenovo.

Shander was named CFO earlier this weekafter holding the title on an interim basis since January.

Our Q&A:

  • Why did you move to Red Hat originally from IBM where you had worked for so long?

My decision to leave IBM was not an easy one. I am a second generation IBMer, my father spent 38 years at IBM in technical sales and marketing positions and I was very happy in my role within their Global Services Business.

However, having lived in Raleigh since 1998, I have watched (and admired) Red Hat grow to the company it is today.

About two years ago, I was introduced to a couple of Red Hat executives at a networking opportunity, which ended up in me learning more about the company and after reading ‘The Open Organization,’ a book written about Red Hat’s culture by our CEO Jim Whitehurst.

I was so inspired I decided to leave IBM to take on the role of Chief Accounting Officer. While I do miss the people at IBM and Lenovo, I absolutely love Red Hat and feel very fortunate to be here.

  • What are some of the big differences between working at IBM and Lenovo and in being a Hatter?

One of the biggest differences between my prior experiences and Red Hat is the culture.

Red Hat truly has an open culture and what this means is our associates have input into many of the decisions that are made. While the time to make a decision at times may take a little bit longer, the time to implement a decision is much shorter and the buy-in from the team is much greater. Larger companies that have a top-down approach are learning the power of decentralized decision making and associate empowerment we know this because many companies do talk to us about how we work.

I absolutely love being at a smaller company, whereby everyone in the organization can see the impact that they make every day and what they do is very important. Red Hatters are very passionate and engaged about everything we do and I find this fuels my excitement and I truly do look forward to coming to work every day!

  • Red Hat has grown revenues for so long now – what can you do as CFO to help keep the streak alive?

The role of the CFO is to help enable the business and direct financial resources to the most productive areas of the business.

I would tell you that I am a bit of a different financial executive, in my last two roles within IBM I was in the business running large scale IT outsourcing operations. This experience allowed me to spend time with clients, as well as really learn the IT infrastructure business. In fact, we used a lot of Red Hat products for the clients that we supported.

Given my business experience, I very much enjoy being in the field with our sales teams and meeting with clients. Now I will spend time with other CFOs to understand how their businesses and industries are transforming and how Red Hat can help them achieve their objectives.

More coverage: Read

Part One of our Q:A and Shander’s full bio