Reading through last week's issue of Bloomberg's Business Week on my flight in to NYC today, I was a bit taken aback that the individual featured in their "How Did I Get Here" column (found on the last page of the magazine each week) was Jim Whitehurst, President and CEO of Red Hat (one of the largest software companies in the world)...and under his education, just before his Harvard MBA '94 was Rice University '89.

Does anyone know him, and know whether he's an active alum? Coincidentally, his 25th Rice reunion is next month.

That sounds vaguely familiar, but it's hard to craft a name that would sound more universally familiar.

Alumnus spotlight from the school of engineering, probably around 2007 or so. He was Comp Sci/Economics and spent his junior year abroad. Jones College.

http://engineering.rice.edu/SpotlightCon...px?id=1152

He was profiled in these undated articles by our Brown School of Engineering and Computer Science Department ... and he gave a lecture on campus on September 15, 2010.

Nice article. I was EE/Physics around the same time. It seems likely we were in the same class at one point or another, but I don't remember him.

It's me. Unfortunately, I already have a business trip planned, so can't join the reunion. I really wish I could. I hope everyone has fun.

I will always remember Whitehurst for having engineered Delta Air Line's re-structuring and emergence from bankruptcy as COO in 2007 with "laser like focus". I assume that had DL's CEO Jerry Grinstein been allowed to name his successor, Whitehurst would have led the new company. Oh well... Redhat is probably more fun and pays better too.